Hi, my name is Greg Vincent from McGrath Estate Agents and I specialise in selling acreage properties. Welcome to the first Acreage Market Wrap for 2021 where I share an insight into How’s The Acreage Market?

This time last year the world was looking forward with anticipation and optimism about what the new decade had in store for us. Well, 2020 certainly turned out to be a unique year full of unexpected changes.

A once-in-100-year pandemic, lockdowns, border closures, job losses, a new socially-distanced lifestyle, bushfires, floods and the first recession in 29 years and yet, the median house price in Sydney and many regional areas went up.

Buyer enquiry for acreage lifestyle property has increased dramatically, driving a 57% increase in acreage sales in The Hawkesbury during Spring 2020 when compared to the previous year...and The Hills as well as Penrith acreage areas have also experienced a double digit increase in acreage sales taking place.

One of the main things that I noticed during 2020 was how poor the media were at predicting what was going to happen to the market. There was a lot of talk about the market dropping by around 30%, but instead areas like the Southern Highlands, Central Coast have experienced increases of upwards of 20%.

A number of factors are keeping house prices on solid ground. For example...

• Record low interest rates

• JobKeeper and JobSeeker

• Mortgage repayment deferrals

• Various measures to support business

• Early access to superannuation

• No international travel encouraging upgraders (record high owner occupier lending in October*)

• Raft of first home buyer incentives (loans 30% higher than pre-COVID*)

• Extended HomeBuilder program (construction loans up 65.5% since July*)

• Work from home trend encouraging regional relocations and boosting regional values

• Rising consumer confidence on the back of improved virus cases management

• Very low supply of homes for sale (24% below the 5-year national average^)

• Positive vaccine news and expected approval in Australia in the first quarter of 2021

The key challenges in 2021 will be virtually no population growth via immigration (except some international students); the scheduled end of JobKeeper and mortgage deferrals; and lack of investor activity. (which we could start to see change considerably as more & more investors look to move towards property to capitalise on the possibility of the double digit growth predicted by several property analysts)

As John McGrath predicted, conditions are likely to remain strong for property, with easier lending from early 2021 due to the anticipated removal of responsible lending obligations likely to boost activity further.

How’s The Acreage Market?

Currently there are 296 acreage properties For Sale across the region. This total includes 163 acreage properties For Sale throughout The Hawkesbury plus there are 93 acreages For Sale throughout The Hills district and another 40 acreages For Sale within Sydney’s North-West acreage areas of Penrith and Blacktown.
Overall there were only 7 new acreage listings come onto the market this week, which included 5 new listings in the Hawkesbury, 1 new listings in the Hills.
There were a total of 3 acreage properties Sold this week plus there are currently 17 acreage properties ‘Under Contract’ across the region, with 11 of those properties ‘Under Contract’ located in The Hawkesbury.
With Solicitors and Conveyancers starting to return back to work tomorrow, I predict that we’ll see a lot of the ‘Under Contract’ sales finalised and there’ll be an increase in the number of new listings come onto the market over the next week or two which will gives a greater indication of how much more active the acreage market has really become.

Over the Christmas break and out in the field this week, there’s been a continuous flow of acreage enquiries coming from city dwellers looking to escape to an acreage lifestyle.

In fact, it was reported on The Project TV Show this week that nearly 58,000 city dwellers moved to Regional areas during the June qtr and these numbers are expected to increase even more in 2021.

Also, over the Christmas break I’ve listed 4 new ‘Off-Market’ Acreage properties.

One is a 9 acre property at 246-254 Reynolds Road in Londonderry which is an excellent land opportunity that has been in the family for approximately a century. Plus, I’ve listed 2 acreage properties in East Kurrajong which are both within the hugely-sought after $1.5m and below price bracket and should sell quickly... and if you really love entertaining then just wait until you see the place I have coming up in North Richmond.

If you want to be amongst the first to know about any of my ‘Off-Market’ acreage listings, make sure you check out & register for FREE now at... www.offmarketacres.com.au - it’s where secret places are revealed.

So, that’s it for this week’s Acreage Market Wrap.

If you’ve got any questions about anything I’ve shared this week or would like to discuss any of your acreage plans with me, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Thanks for watching, Happy New Year, stay safe and bye for now.

Regards

Greg Vincent