Buyer activity surging in Queensland
An upsurge of buyers in Brisbane are heating up the competition for investors, a buyer’s agent on the ground in Queensland has told Smart Property Investment.
While January has often been soft in Brisbane, this year’s buying activity has been much busier than usual with demand shooting up, said buyer's agent for Allen Real Estate, Andrew Allen.
“It's been incredibly busy here, a real mini burst of activity in the Brisbane market place," Mr Allen explained, saying that this is making it harder for investors and buyer's agents in the area, and he had been outbid on the last four contracts offered.
The bulk of the activity, however, hasn’t been coming from investors, and first time buyers are still light in numbers. He attributes a large number of the sales to upgraders in the area.
“Properties are selling quickly,” Mr Allen said, identifying properties priced “under $500,000, at the sweet point of $350,000 to $450,000” as those most in demand.
He said that as a result, his buyer’s agency has had to adjust how they are approaching offers, and investors would be wise to do the same or risk losing their purchase to excited home buyers.
“[On seeing a good property] we’re instantly putting in Expressions Of Interest,” he said, explaining that previously he had been able to take a bit more time with the contract.
Stock that had been on the market is beginning to be cleared off of agents’ books, and the enquiry level has increased.
“If [the demand] continues, the next step may be growth in prices," he said, explaining that he is looking for the 'ripple effect' a little further out, before the statistics currently available to show this type of growth and activity are available.
Scott McGeever, managing partner at buyer's agency Property Searchers, told Smart Property Investment that the last two weeks have seen a resurgence stronger than what is traditionally expected in February, saying it is close to double that of last year's activity in the same time period.
"It has been a huge increase," he said, pointing to within 10 to 12km of the CBD.
However, "I don't think [prices] will grow immediately," Mr McGeever said.