Hi, 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?

But before we talk acreage, I’d just like to do a quick shout out to all of the kids who started back at school this week, I wish you all the very best for this school year.

...and especially to all the little ones who had their first day at school or who start school on Monday I wish you all the best as well as sending my thoughts to all of the Mum’s & Dad’s & those extra proud Grandparents who all normally need more support than the kids do along with maybe a tissue or two during a child’s first day of heading off to school.

It’s an amazing time in your life where you can’t help but wonder where on earth did those past few years disappear.

It’s even hard to believe that the first month of this new decade is already over.

So, anyway let’s get into it...

This week, I shared an insight into “How the future home will impact the acreage market?”

As John McGrath predicted in his article on Switzer Daily this week, the future home will be a “move to minimalism resulting in smaller, simpler homes with streamlined, open spaces that are easy to maintain and provide a sanctuary-style escape from a hectic world.

Because, increasingly time poor home owners want more flexibility and lower maintenance properties to suit their busy lifestyles. Many people don’t have time to mow lawns or clean large residences anymore.”

However, on the flip-side, as Australia’s population increases and Sydney’s urban sprawl starts to accelerate to provide much needed housing, the future home is going to become much smaller plus parcels of land in newer subdivisions will shrink even further to accommodate greater density development, which will in turn increase the value of englobo acreage properties situated within the development areas.

Whilst Sydney’s population growth and sprawling development keeps occurring I believe that there’s going to be an upsurge in demand for acreage properties, and this is due to a number of factors.

Firstly, there’s a large number of displaced and cashed-up acreage owners who will end up with their properties rezoned and after having been bought-out by developers many of these acreage owners will want to relocate back onto another nearby acreage property to maintain their current lifestyle which will put added pressure on acreage prices like it did back in 2014/2015.

Secondly, with all of the extra construction and infrastructure projects which will continue to take place in & around Sydney, many of the people who own trucks, excavation equipment along with many small to medium sized business owners and tradespeople like plumbers, landscapers, etc will be looking to buy acreage properties to set up home-based businesses so that they can store their vehicles and equipment without the expensive overheads of having to lease and fit out industrial premises.

Acreage already provides a functional and practical solution for many of these types of home-based businesses and the demand for more extra space is only set to increase in the future as Sydney becomes more and more crowded-in.

If you’d like to learn more about what the future home will be like and its impact on the acreage market, here’s a link to the article I wrote earlier this week.

Also, to kick-off the new decade, McGrath have released their brand new McGrath.com.au website this week which delivers a cutting-edge user experience combined with an elegant, streamlined design that is true to the McGrath brand.

The new McGrath Knowledge centre showcases rich blog content, ebooks, checklists and much more to help with all your real estate questions. Here’s a link to some information about McGrath’s new website.

So, what’s happening in the market?

The housing market has started off the new year extremely strong which is great news for home sellers, but, How's The Acreage Market tracking in comparison?

Well, whilst there’s been a lot more enquiry and an increase in buyer activity within the acreage market compared to this time last year, however, during this past month the number of sales that have actually transacted has been less than 5% of the stock available which is quite a low ratio when compared to the overall number of acreage properties which currently remain unsold.

This means that with more acreage stock expected to come onto the market in the coming weeks, those acreage owners who really do want to sell in today’s more buoyant and active market conditions need to be very careful not to get too swept up in all the media hype about all the record prices and hysteria that’s currently occurring within the inner-city housing market, especially if they’re looking at downsizing and moving from acreage into the booming housing market.

You see, if you’re waiting for acreage prices to catch up, by the time acreage prices rise to the level you may want, any gains that you made will most likely be lost by having to pay so much more for the home that you’re looking to move to.

On the other hand, if you can afford to purchase your next home now (maybe buy structure it as an investment property) prior to selling your acreage property then there may be an opportunity to capitalise on the future capital growth on both your new home and on your acreage, that is if you can afford to wait for acreage prices to recover.

But as always make sure you seek out advice from either your accountant or financial advisor.

Hopefully, you can see why it’s vitally important for acreage owners to stay in-tune with what’s actually happening in the acreage sector because acreage properties are still in a highly competitive marketplace at present and if available stock levels remain as they currently stand it looks like the acreage market could stay quite competitive up until around the middle to later part of this year.

You see, for example,

…there were 8 new acreage properties listed this week and there are currently 391 acreage properties For Sale across the entire region.
This overall total includes 220 acreage properties For Sale throughout all of The Hawkesbury, 121 in The Hills and another 50 For Sale within Sydney’s North-West acreage areas of Penrith and Blacktown.
However, there’s only been 4 acreage properties Sold this week across the entire region with another 10 properties that are currently ‘Under Contract’.
Whilst January sales momentum normally takes a bit of time to get going because Solicitors have been on holidays, etc, there were actually only 17 acreage properties Sold this month which is only 4.17 per cent and is quite a low percentage when you consider as I mentioned before, there are nearly 400 acreage properties currently for sale across the entire region.

But on a more positive note, it looks like this February/March period is going to be a bit like a new Spring market with acreage buyers flooding back into the market, plus being a leap year, having one extra day of trading in February may just help to improve this months sales stats just enough that I think we’re going to see the number of acreage sales at least double if not triple this coming month compared with January’s sales results.

So what’s happening out in the field this week.

Well it’s not only the mercury that was soaring, the acreage market is definitely heating up. There were a lot buyers enquiring about acreage properties this week and lots of buyers out and about at today’s Open Homes even in the sizzling heat. It really looks like February is going to be a hot market for acreage sales.

Time will tell. It’s going to be very interesting to see at the end of this month how both February’s acreage stats and the overall stats for this Summer finish up, which I’ll be featuring in the upcoming Autumn edition of The Acreage Report 2020.

In the meantime, if you haven't already grabbed yourself a copy, make sure you check out The Acreage Report 2020 Summer edition at www.TheAcreageReport.com.au or visit this page on my website to download your FREE copy now.

It's packed full of valuable insights and updates about exactly what's happening within The Hills, The Hawkesbury and Sydney's North West acreage market.

Lastly, in other news, the Developers are definitely back out in the market again and right now is the time to protect yourself and get prepared for when the developers do come knocking on your door.

If you’re looking to sell your acreage property to a developer, having the right people on your side is critical, which is also why I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome the new appointment by the McGrath Projects team of Michael Bevan, who is a development and site acquisition specialist who will be helping address the extra demand we anticipate receiving from developers as we prepare for much busier times ahead in the acreage sector.

McGrath as a company is very strategically positioned within the marketplace to assist those acreage owners who are going through development and the uncertainty of rezoning, as well as support you at every step throughout the process of selling your property to developers.

If you’d like more information about what’s currently happening with developers, Planning NSW and the local councils, here’s a link to an article I shared earlier this week about.. McGrath Well Positioned As Developer Confidence Returns Back Into Sydney Property Market

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.

I’ll be back again next week with another update. In the meantime, let’s hope we get more of that rain that’s predicted along with a welcome break from this extreme heat.

Thanks for watching. Enjoy the rest of your weekend everyone. Bye for now.

Regards

Greg Vincent