Aussies could score a “property bargain” over Christmas

With new listings rising at a record number, this is a good opportunity to look at buying property before international border reopening in 2022.

The national marketplace for buyer’s agent services says there could be a window of opportunity for home buyers and investors to score a “property bargain” over Christmas. It could be their last chance ahead of the international borders reopening in 2022 with an influx of overseas buyers. “The holiday period is commonly a time when buyers lose a bit of interest as people turn their thoughts to summer holidays or more festive pursuits rather than start with property research”, Pete Wargent – BuyersBuyers co-founder said.

“The permanent immigration cap may even be lifted to above 200,000 in due course to alleviate Australia’s skills shortage. Logically, buyers should have less competition and potentially more choice before international travel picks up again in earnest”, BuyersBuyers CEO Doron Peleg said.

The new Covid variant Omicron, could also put the property market back to a buyer’s market and drive down prices, with homeowners trying their best to list their properties before the boom ends. As reported by CoreLogic, Australian house prices rocketed by 1.3% in November taking the national housing values 22.2% higher over the past 12 months. In fact, approximately $126,700 has been added to Australian home median values since the conception of pandemic in the country. However, there are signs the market is starting to cool.

Mr Peleg said, ‘There is a brief period of time before record low overseas arrivals numbers are replaced by a new wave of arrivals.’ See graph below:

Mr. Wargent has advised buyers not to become too focused on small price movements since they tend to be relatively immaterial over a decade. Try instead to think about where prices will be 10 years from now. December and January can be an exciting time to buy property, with less competition.

“Immigration has been high in Australia for the past 15 years, and will be again relatively soon. But for a brief time, there may be an opportunity to snare a bargain purchase.”, he added.