This year has introduced a set of challenges never before seen in our lifetime.
While the residential market has been affected by falling net overseas migration and a decline in international investors, an increase in first home buyers along with government stimulus has made significant changes to the shape of the market over the year.
“First Home Buyers have been our dominate buyers over the past 6 months across our projects in both the Sydney and Brisbane markets,” Foxwood Property managing director Clint Willoughby said.
“Our buyers today are looking for a retail experience—they are looking for well thought-out apartment layouts—often with a study nook or small media room, amenity as always is key, and affordability is paramount.”
Foxwood Property, a national residential projects sales agency, has seen buyer trends change dramatically this year.
With more than 30 years working across various residential projects, Willoughby says the events of 2020 are not necessarily comparable to the GFC.
“Prices have not dropped dramatically as many commentators predicted,” Willoughby said.
“The buyer profile during the GFC was equally investors seeking a great deal along with owner occupiers.”
The market we are seeing today is a multi-tiered:
The premium housing market in key capital city suburbs. Limited supply, historical low interest rates and improving market sentiment is fuelling price growth.
Outer-ring house and land markets have seen a surge in sales largely driven by government stimulus such as first home buyer grants and the Home Builder boost.
Medium- to high-density development in outer-lying locations nationally, have struggled due to oversupply and a lack of multifaceted buyer types.
Regional markets within easy reach to our capital cities such as the Central Coast, Illawarra and Southern Highlands in NSW, Mornington Peninsula in Victoria and both the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Northern NSW townships have seen unprecedented price growth and demand brought about by Covid.
Foxwood Property national director of sales and marketing Georgia Scanlon said that work-life balance has become more challenging as the time we spend at home increases.
“We went through an unprecedented period of time where many of us were restricted to our homes. This has brought about a forced changed in the way we do business,” Scanlon said.
“For many companies, working from home in some capacity will form part of normal practice—and as such, buyers moving into the market are very much focused on efficiency and adaptability of space and quality of finish when purchasing a property.”
Independent surveys conducted reveal that 86 per cent of participants would like to continue working from home and 73 per cent believe their employers would be open to it, demonstrating an apparent transition into more flexible working.
Seemingly a persistent shift that will reshape our Australian communities, this pandemic-shaped lifestyle is a whole new world for developers and project marketing agencies alike.
“From the moment lock downs commenced in March 2020, we knew our sales strategies would need to evolve for each of our projects—and evolve quickly,” Scanlon said.
Marketing manager Amanda Halim said Foxwood worked with clients to construct a series of macro and micro marketing campaigns.
“Close analysis of where conversions were occurring and continuously adapting our campaigns accordingly ensured we were able to keep up a steady level of enquiry across many of our projects,” Halim said.
As the apartment market continues to evolve, cost of sale and rate of sale has become of even greater importance for many developers.
“Without the reliance of the Asian investors, agents need a thorough understanding of the target markets and price points supported by quality marketing collateral including great display and very targeted lead generation budget, these are the key parts to maintaining a healthy rate of sale,” Willoughby said.
“With a forecast of low interest rates for the foreseeable future, along with a vaccine almost on our doorstep, I have no doubt market sentiment will continue to improve in the first quarter of 2021,” Willoughby said.
“We will see a continued increase of investors re-entering the medium to high density markets, a push for housing in lifestyle locations within 90 minutes of Sydney and First Home Buyers continuing to be the predominant owner occupier buyer across the development markets.”
Scanlon says to expect a move towards hybrid living.
“Regions like the Central Coast in NSW and the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, which have been predominately lifestyle investor locations, will become more sought-after as people continue to embrace more balanced and flexible lifestyles,” Scanlon said.
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