Australia’s housing market spike in the midst of pandemic

Australian buyers’ bottled up demand elicit upsurge in regional real estate market

As reported by Domain, the housing market demand across Australia is rising in spite of the slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Property valuers from Herron Todd White, an Australian property advising company, stated that some of the growing property markets across the country include Hervey Bay (Queensland), Coffs Harbour (New South Wales), along with smaller capital cities alike Adelaide. Yet, demand in Sydney and Melbourne — Australia’s major cities — are in fact declining.

Sydney and Melbourne have experienced eager and dynamic bidding. However, the property valuers gave consideration into the currently low number of houses for sale. This raised questions, as there might not be a sufficient quantity of buyers if sellers were to increase. The two largest cities have been affected the most than anywhere else in the country.

Kevin Brogan, director of valuation policy and compliance at Herron Todd White in Adelaide, said: “Melbourne is the most obvious impact. Without coronavirus, you would quite often see 1,000 auctions in a week. Up until a week ago, they were having 50 to 60 auctions.”

“Sydney and Melbourne had a really strong demand [driven by] new population that’s been taken out of the equation completely,” he added.

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On the other hand, markets that weren’t heavily impacted by the pandemic are performing strongly, such as Adelaide and Coffs Harbour in New South Wales. Demand for new homes is strong, but new properties aren’t being built. The clearance of local virus cases has also boosted the housing market to rebound since June.

Craig Gardner, an agent at Nolan & Partners in Coffs Harbour mentioned, “With bank interest rates so low, investment returns are better. Things are selling really quickly… and [there are] multiple offers on properties.”

Due to government subsidies for construction, unit, house, and land sales have increased immensely. Real estate companies across Australia have never been so busy since the first half of 2020.