Hi, and Happy Easter everyone. I hope you and your family are making the most of your Easter Break even though we’re currently in Lockdown.

For those who may not know me, my name is Greg Vincent and welcome to this week’s Acreage Market Wrap where I share an insight into How’s The Acreage Market?

Earlier this week I shared an update about What Impact The Coronavirus Is Having On The Housing Market? Which included some interesting insights into the possible scenarios and some expert forecasting by Louis Christopher of SQM Research. If you haven’t seen this update as yet and you’re wondering whether you should buy, sell or hold-off from doing anything in this current market, then this article is an absolute must to tune into. I’ll put a link to it underneath this video.

It's been encouraging to see some positive changes announced recently like the NRL announcing that they will be kicking there season off again in about 6 weeks time and figures showing that we are flattening the curve as we continue to do what we can to stop the spread. We all have to stay the course, stay vigilant and ride this thing out as best we can.

There’s been an enormous amount of changes occurring over these past few weeks, with so many new Government announcements, initiatives and restrictions that have direct and indirect impacts on the housing sector along with new Covid-19 operating guidelines which have changed the way that real estate agents are now doing business... and I’ve been busy Re-Imagining, Re-Inventing and Re-Positioning our business so that we can best serve our customers and clients throughout this pandemic and beyond.

You see, during these times it’s important to remember that in business it’s no longer the big who beats the small, it’s the fast that beats the slow and it’s critical to try to stay a step ahead and anticipate changes that could change how we do business today, tomorrow and over these next few weeks and months.

For example, here in NSW, real estate agents can no longer do Open Homes but we can still conduct private inspections. However in the past 48 hours there’s been a restriction imposed on other states which may also potentially come into effect here which will have a big impact on those agents who aren’t prepared for further imposed restrictions.

You see, late on Thursday evening Victorian real estate agents were instructed that they could no longer do private inspections on owner occupied or tenant occupied properties as it forces both the occupants as well as the prospective buyers or prospective tenants to leave home for trips that aren’t within the guidelines that are deemed to be a necessary reason not to remain at home.

Currently the agents in Victoria can only show homes that have been vacated, which has caused a lot of frustration and inspection cancellations throughout the real estate industry down there today and across this Easter weekend.

This new restriction is currently only in place up until the 13th of April, but it may be extended further and it has the potential to eventually become enforced in other states.

The good news is that, property is still being transacted, for example, our team here at McGrath have sold 190 properties in the last week valued at $185 million, which makes our company amongst one the safest options in the market as we have access to more qualified, finance approved buyers

...and after a highly anticipated announcement expected by the NSW Government over the Easter break or early next week regarding a new Rent Relief package, it looks like Property Investors Will Once Again Be Poised To Jump Back Into The Acreage Market.

Also, this week I started putting together a New Acreage Handbook Featuring Important Tips For Buying Acres - (Coming Soon). To assist me in compiling the best information I possibly can, please let me know if you have any questions about buying acres that you would like to see answered in the booklet (and for current acreage owners, even if you’d like to cast your mind back and share some of the questions that perhaps you would've liked answered before you bought you acres). Simply comment below, get in contact with me or send me a message.

How’s The Acreage Market?

Again this week we’ve seen more new acreage listings coming onto the market and only a small number of sales occurring. If the Covid-19 lockdown remains exactly the same it looks like this trend is set to continue, however, if access to properties is restricted then I anticipate that we will see a lot more acreages going up For Sale ‘Off-Market’ and the number of new listings being uploaded onto the property websites like realestate.com.au and domain.com.au may level off over the coming months purely due to accessibility.

Currently there a total of 438 acreage properties For Sale across the entire region. This overall total includes 235 acreage properties For Sale throughout all of The Hawkesbury, 139 in The Hills and another 64 acreages For Sale within Sydney’s North-West acreage areas of Penrith and Blacktown.
This week, another 17 new acreage listings went onto the market but there were only 2 acreage properties Sold this week plus there’s 15 acreage properties currently ‘Under Contract’ across the region, with a percentage of those being ‘Under Option’ which means that they could take quite a long time to appear in the Sold data.

Whilst none of these statistics factor in any acreages that may have been Sold ‘Off-Market’, but when I researched through realestate.com.au it was very interesting to see that the property we sold at 7 Everett Place, Annangrove is the only acreage property that has Sold in The Hills during these past 4 weeks, which indicates that acreage sales appear to have stalled within that area at present.

Out in the field, this week, we launched another property as part of our new ‘Off-Market Acres’ platform where Secret Places Are Revealed. The property is at 309 Fairey Road, South Windsor on over 5 acres of mostly cleared land and has a comfortable 3 BR home plus large workshop, separate studio/office and horse facilities. It’s positioned is in a very convenient location as it backs onto the residential area of Bligh Park as well as the Windsor Park Public School which means that there’s access to public transport right at your back door. The price guide is $1.35m - $1.4m and is a great opportunity for anyone with trucks, equipment, horses, etc and are currently looking to move onto an affordable 5 acres.

If you’d like more information about this property or get early access to any of our ‘Off-Market Acres’ listings simply click on the link below or register now at www.offmarketacres.com.au to access the site plan, watch the extensive Video Walkthrough and download a copy of the contract of sale.

Once you register for 'Off-Market Acres’ you also get instant access to The Acreage Report 2020 (Autumn edition) which features an insight into ‘The Future For Acreage This Decade' and outlines the Two Biggest Factors Set To Impact Acreage over the next 10 years and at the same time you'll get Early-Access to any of the 'Off-Market' acreages coming up.

The Acreage Report also includes statistics about exactly what's happening within the Hawkesbury, Hills & Sydney’s North West acreage market.

Plus you get a bonus copy of The McGrath Report 2020 which features some great insights from property expert, John McGrath.

Lastly, if you’re thinking of selling your acreage, promoting your property’Off-Market’ could be a good way to do a soft-launch to test the level of interest during this Covid-19 period before investing thousands of dollars in a traditional marketing campaign. If you’d like to find out more about how selling ‘Off-Market’ works, take a few moments to look at, www.OffMarketAcres.com.au.

I’ve had a lot of people register to receive updates about ‘Off-Market Acres’ during this past week and our database of qualified acreage buyers keeps increasing each day, which means that I may already be working with just the right buyer for your place and chances are that you could become another one of our clients who get to sell their property ‘stress-free’, without all the usual preparation, worry and added expense that can happen when putting your acreage property on the market. It’s definitely worth looking into!

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, stay safe, Happy Easter everyone, bye for now.

Regards

Greg Vincent