Nearly 1 in 10 Aussies plan to sell next year – are you one of them?

Last year, only 3 per cent of respondents expressed an intention to sell their property and repurchase another within the next 12 months. In 2023, however, this leaped up to 8 per cent of survey respondents.

According to Dye & Durham, the uptake of interest in selling may forecast that “the shortage of listings which prevailed over the past 12 months is likely to ease over the next year”.

The software company’s managing director Dennis Barnhart observed that “many people, owners, mortgagers, renters and sharers are carefully timing their next moves in the property market”.

This desire for home ownership, however, is vying with a fear of economic instability.

Nine in 10 survey respondents are experiencing an increase in their living expenses, and almost two-thirds of Australians believe their financial position will worsen over the next year.

With rising inflation on everyone’s minds, only 6 per cent have faith that their income will increase above the inflation rate. The majority feel that their income will remain static, leaving them unable to keep their head above water.

Cost of living is the top point of concern for survey respondents, with over 66 per cent citing it as the most significant issue they are facing. Housing and rental affordability follow hot on its heels, with 54 per cent of respondents putting it in first place.

Furthermore, 15 per cent of participants believe Australia is currently in a recession, and a further 44 per cent asserting that it is on the brink of one.

With economic fears looming in the background, the majority of respondents are hesitant to seize the day. One in 10 would-be sellers indicated they are electing to wait until purchase prices increase before going to sale.

Aspiring buyers also prefer to wait, but for a different reason: 16 per cent of respondents want to wait a year until property prices decline, while 23 per cent plan to hold off until interest rates drop.

With network CEO John McGrath recently predicting that the market will reward the “brave” who buy now, sitting pretty is not necessarily the favoured strategy of all investors, despite its popularity with the public.