Real estate platform sees surge in buyer demand

The on-site consumer activity allows REA Insights analysts to model behavioural demand and home in on the activity of serious buyers, a statement from REA said.

“The characteristics of serious buyer activity includes, but is not limited to, the number of visits to a listing, looking at the photos for a listing multiple times, saving the property, sharing the property and/or making an enquiry with agents.”

According to the index, 11.2 million people visited realestate.com.au in April.

“As the recovery from the impacts of COVID-19 continue, this forward-looking index shows the buyers are back but sellers are yet to follow,” Cameron Kusher, director of economic esearch at REA Group, explained.

“The current undersupply of properties has resulted in demand surging on realestate.com.au. Serious buyer activity has now increased for the past nine weeks and is up 100.8 per cent from its low.”

Mr Kusher noted that one of the likely drivers of such high volumes of serious buyer activity is the fact that there are so few properties listed for sale.

“With less stock, serious buyers narrow their focus much more and are likely to be more highly engaged with the listings on-site,” he said.

“For property owners considering selling, the index provides an indication of the level of buyer demand they can expect when they list. For buyers, it serves as a gauge on the amount of competition they’re likely to face.”