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?

Buying or Selling real estate this Spring could be a very different experience this year.

You see, we’ve been advised that the Office of Fair Trading will commence conducting audits this weekend at both open for inspections and auctions. They will be closely monitoring social distancing and all other Covid Safe practices.

The Fair Trading inspectors will be ensuring that each agent has a copy of the businesses COVID Safe Plan and they’ll be making sure that agents are following the COVID Safe Plan.

For example, if you have queues leading into your home that are not 1.5m in spacing, if there are queues of people passing each other in stairwells and hallways, if there are groups of non-related parties bunching up at auctions agents may receive a fine or warning this weekend.

Other important items to consider are;

- The 4sqm density requirement is a room by room requirement. For example, if a bathroom is only 7sqm, you may only allow 1 person into that area at a time...and this must be regulated. It is important to note that an agent is included in this density requirement, for example if a bedroom is 16sqm, the room is allowed 4 people in it at a time, if an agent is in the room then only 3 attendees can be in the room with the agent, and they must be socially distanced.

- Agents must register every client for tracing purposes.

- It’s important to avoid having any items available for clients inspecting the property that multiple people may touch. For example, having a display contract for multiple parties to look through is not hygienic, it would be better to provide access to a digital copy of the contract.

- When talking with clients, agents need to ensure that they are keeping at least 1.5M away from any party including team members. If social distancing isn’t possible, a mask and disposable gloves are good options.

- Displaying Covid19 safe signage throughout the home is advised to keep the requirements top of mind for the clients inspecting the property.

- An agent and businesses have responsibility to keep their staff and clients safe, it is isn’t compulsory but it’s suggested that our teams use masks and gloves to mitigate any risk and have masks and gloves available for customers if they would like to use them.

- We provide hand sanitiser upon entry and ensure all clients use this before entering the home.

- Bidding cards should be disposed of after use and wiped with disinfectant before handing over to each registered party.

- Agents can’t just assume that the auctioneer asking people to space 4sqm is enough at an auction; having team members at high traffic auctions and open homes directing social distancing is another part of the COVID Safe Plan.

UPDATED 29/8/2020 : Maximum of 20 people rule (excluding vendor(s), agents (s) and the auctioneer) at auctions. Note: It doesn’t matter if the auctions are held inside or outside, the ruling of 20 must be adhered to where possible this weekend and it’s compulsory for all auctions from Monday onwards.

Fair Trading Inspectors are authorised officers under the Public Health Act 2010 and will conduct inspections of agencies, including checking COVID-19 Safety Plans. Agents who do not have an active COVID-19 Safety Plan can face a fine of $5,000.

I see this as a really good thing for our industry, especially as we start to head into the busy Spring market, because if there’s an outbreak which is traced back to an auction or an Open For Inspection, then the Government would flick the switch and we’d likely see restrictions imposed like we previously experienced during lockdown which would mean no auctions and no opens during the busiest time of the year.

So if any agents are watching this or if anyone is out there looking to buy or sell a property please make sure that there’s a COVID Safe Plan in place so we can all do our bit to keep the market moving forward.

How’s The Acreage Market?

Currently there are 384 acreage properties For Sale across the region. This total includes 210 acreage properties For Sale throughout The Hawkesbury, 122 throughout The Hills district and another 52 acreages For Sale within Sydney’s North-West acreage areas of Penrith and Blacktown.
There were 19 new acreage listings come onto the market this week. There were only 8 acreage properties Sold this week which was the same number as last week, and there are currently 21 acreage properties ‘Under Contract’ across the region which shows that the market is definitely moving forward.

Out in the field this week, we launched 3 acreage properties this week.

I was out early this morning and grabbed a couple of photos of the sunrise over the equestrian property at 201 Willeroo Drive, Windsor Downs. This 11.7 acres property with a modern-style 5BR home has already had a number of buyers showing some strong interest, especially because of its well-established agistment business which is currently under-capitalised, yet it provides an excellent passive income.

I’ve received a lot of enquiry about the 5.9 acres property at 1-5 Dodford Road, Llandilo and we had a steady flow of buyers through the Open Home for the 5 acre property at 114 Fisher Road, Maraylya today with a couple of contracts already issued after only being launched online yesterday.

At this stage, it looks like there’ll be a good turn out at next week’s auction of 40 Pitt Street in Richmond. We are suggesting that all interested parties pre-register to ensure that they’re opportunity to purchase isn’t impacted by onlookers.

I have another ‘Off-Market’ Acres listing becoming available to inspect this week and more coming up to kick-off the Spring season.

If you’re looking to buy acreage and want early access to any of my ‘off-market’ listing, make sure to check out... www.offmarketacres.com.au

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 and bye for now.

Regards

Greg Vincent