“New listings began to fall suggesting vendors were becoming hesitant, this caution heightened in April with even fewer homes listed for sale, suggesting few forced sales,” Powell said.
Latest stats show that Brisbane house prices nudged upwards over the March quarter with a 0.6% increase.
However, this week CoreLogic’s research director, Tim Lawless, estimated that we will see a 10 per cent fall in property values, with signs of a weakening economy and halts to overseas migration seen as a signal that a drop in housing demand is coming.
This coupled with the drop in property market confidence that we spoke about in our article last week might have you starting to sweat. But there are three factors that might see prices stay put:
- The banks offering mortgage payment deferrals of up to six months, and record low interest rates.
- COVID-19 related job losses are concentrated in certain sectors, meaning those employed in other sectors are somewhat shielded.
- We’re seeing pandemic-related growth in several sectors, including health, government and medical research.
2020 so far has seen a lack of housing stock with many buyers still active in the market, especially those who still have financial security and those hoping to take advantage of the many incentives available.
Domain senior research analyst Nicola Powell said “New listings began to fall suggesting vendors were becoming hesitant, this caution heightened in April with even fewer homes listed for sale, suggesting few forced sales”.
Although it’s hard to know the true stats on this explained CoreLogic’s research director Tim Lawless due to the increased number of homes offered for sale as off-market listings.
CoreLogic has recorded a significant increase in new listings over the past 28 days to April 19 with Brisbane recording an additional 2956 new listings (down -25.2% from last year).
So while these times continue, and it’s impossible to say exactly what will happen, it’s important to remember this is a very different crisis to ones we’ve seen before.
Need some help with your property plans during uncertain times? Contact us for a chat.