A NATIONAL real estate chief says the best advice for buyers trying to get into the skyrocketing real estate market is to not search for their dream home straight off.
Collie & Tierney First National Australia and New Zealand chief executive Ray Ellis visited the Mildura office this week and said local trends were on par with those across the country.
He said it had been almost two decades since Mildura and the rest of the country had experienced such a real estate boom, with “the perfect storm” of factors such as COVID-19, low interest rates and government incentives behind the current level of interest in property.
“Australians have a passion for property, either to buy one to live or to buy one as an investment — that’s ingrained in our DNA,” Mr Ellis said.
“COVID has made that even stronger because we have seen the value of having a home, whether that’s a rental property or a property we own.
“We’ve fallen in love with playing Scrabble, talking to each other across the dinner table, or paying UNO, so home became the vogue again.”
He said while many people’s jobs had been impacted by COVID-19, the majority had their income protected by an employer or the government through JobKeeper, so there was a combination of an income and additional downtime, which resulted in people hitting the internet to search for properties.
“Of course not being able to travel and spend money has put more money in our pockets, so people have thought, let’s look at an investment property, so that’s driven the prices up again.”
Mr Ellis said while it was difficult to get into the market, the number of first-home buyers had increased by 50 per cent in Mildura and across Australia in the past 12 months, and offered some advice for new house hunters.
“Have your finances in order, know what you can afford, look at what you can afford over the next two or three years and find a property and buy it,” he said.
“It might not necessarily be the ideal location, it might not necessarily be your dream home, but just get into the market.
“If it hasn’t got that extra bedroom or the backyard is a bit small, at least you’ll be in the market, you’ll have a mortgage, you’ll be able to pay it and look at other things in the next two or three years with the security that you’re actually in a home already.
“Don’t think it will be different in a month’s time or it will be different in six months’ time, it won’t be.”
He said the significant interest in buying property was set to continue but it was unknown if the current heightened sold prices would continue.
