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?

I received a notification earlier this week that Hawkesbury City Council is exhibiting a planning proposal to make amendments to their Local Environmental Plan.

The proposed amendments generally relate to matters such as updating general wording and referencing; amending the LEP due to provisions of State Planning Policies; changes to minimum lot size provisions; site specific rezoning and land classifications; and correcting some minor drafting and mapping errors.

The proposed amendments also include the addition of certain land uses as permissible development. The exhibition of the planning proposal is available to view up until the 22nd of May. You can see the proposed amendments to the LEP and have your say via this link.

There was also an eye-opening report released this week by CBRE Research which delves into lessons learnt from the most recent economic shocks and impacts on the property market which could provide some good indicators as we navigate our way forward during the Coronvirus-impacted economy.

One of the most compelling predictions was that a 10% correction was more likely outcome in some sectors, which is a much more positive outlook than the 30% price drop hype that the media was previously reported.

The report also highlighted the importance of understanding that each of the different property market sectors will behave differently during economic cycles. For example, the apartment market looks like being impacted significantly by some of the international restrictions. For more detail, here’s a link to the CBRE report.

The CBRE report also showed that…

SALES VOLUMES REBOUND QUICKLY WHEN ECONOMIC CONDITIONS TURN

RESIDENTIAL MARKETS TYPICALLY RECOVER WELL AFTER SHOCKS

As lockdowns measures start to become relaxed it looks like we could start to see a significant increase in activity in the housing sector, especially within certain segments of the acreage market.

Especially after Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced yesterday that Australians have earned an early mark and most importantly when they start to reduce some of the restrictions the Government are determined to keep Australia’s economy moving forward.

As radio host Kate Langbroek said, “we’ve got to be like the emblems on our coat of arms, the kangaroo and the emu, they only go forward and as a country we only want to move forward from here.”

This has been a difficult period for our nation and hopefully with relaxed measures being announced this Friday by the PM our economy can start moving forward again and I’m sure Aussies will rally together as we always do in times of crisis and continue to stop the spread. Keep up the great work team Australia.

In other news, this week, Australia’s leading property data provider CoreLogic recently rolled out a brand new weekly report titled the ‘Early Market Indicators’ and the data could provide an insightful forecast into what’s ahead for the property market. It’s definitely going to be very interesting to see how these early indicators start to play out during the Post-COVID19 period.

You see, in the housing sector there’s been a shortage of listings over the past year with many people holding off from selling during last year’s elections and lots of people currently putting their plans on hold off the back of the Coronavirus pandemic due to the uncertainty in the market.

Interestingly, the acreage market hasn’t experienced the same shortage of listings during this same period, yet there are fewer acreage properties currently on the market than there were around the same time last year.

In fact, as reported in last year’s publication of The Acreage Report 2019 (Autumn edition) there were a total of 479 acreage properties For Sale and there were only 56 acreages sold during that Summer period, whereas, in this years copy of The Acreage Report 2020 (Autumn edition) there were 386 acreages For Sale and a total of 104 acreage properties Sold during this corresponding quarter.

These acreage sales results looked set to continue to increase dramatically throughout the Autumn months, however, they were dramatically impacted by the COVID-19 and so far, we’ve seen available listings increase back up to 450 acreages For Sale and there’s been a total of 36 acreage properties Sold during these first two months of Autumn 2020.

How’s The Acreage Market?

Currently there are 450 acreage properties For Sale across the region. This total includes 245 acreage properties For Sale throughout The Hawkesbury, 139 throughout in The Hills area and another 66 acreages For Sale within Sydney’s North-West acreage areas of Penrith and Blacktown.
This week, there were another 15 new acreage listings enter the market and similar to last week there were another 6 acreage properties Sold this week. Also, there’s currently 14 acreage properties ‘Under Contract’ across the region.

Out in the field, I can sense an underlying groundswell of acreage activity starting to build up a head of steam as I’ve being experiencing a steady flow of initial enquiries coming from buyers looking to escape the city life and embrace working from home amongst a quieter acreage lifestyle.

Also, looking closer into the CoreLogic Early Market Indicators Report, there was a 23.94% increase in the number of market appraisal reports generated within their system in this past week (which is a Pre-Listing Activity) and that indicates that there could be quite a few new listings coming onto the market in these coming weeks as property owners get ready to make a move.

CoreLogic also reported that there was an increase in mortgage activity which was up by 9.83% from last week and up by a massive 79% compared to the same time last year. There also appears to be a huge increase to the number of people refinancing as homeowners are taking this opportunity to lock in their mortgage at record low rates with 73% of loan applications currently being for refinancing which was up by 13.4% from last week.

The CoreLogic report also showed that 17.4% of loan applications were for property purchases which also increased by 14.24% this week and was up by 44.11% compared to this time last year which goes to prove that property transactions are still occurring throughout the COVID-19 period and actually many of the agents within our McGrath network have experienced some outstanding sales results throughout April, which is a fantastic outcome for our clients.

When you weigh up all the facts and take into consideration the current low interest rates, the highly anticipated ‘U’-shaped acreage recovery which was postponed back in March due to the Coronavirus, plus the extensive selection of acreage stock currently available to choose from along with the affordable pricing of acreage properties at the moment, purchasing acreage now before the market bounces back looks like not only being a great chance to secure a quality acreage lifestyle property, but, also at the same time lock-in your mortgage at the lowest interest rate ever seen in Australia’s history.

Also, the insights I shared about ‘The Future For Acreage This Decade' as well The Two Biggest Factors Set To Impact Acreage Over The Next 10 Years that I featured in The Acreage Report 2020 (Autumn edition) are some other great reasons why right now looks like being an excellent time to be buying acreage.

You can get a FREE copy of The Acreage Report 2020 (Autumn edition) at www.TheAcreageReport.com.au

The Acreage Report features statistics about what's happening in the Hawkesbury, Hills & Sydney’s North West acreage market. Plus you also get instant access to a copy of The McGrath Report 2020 which features exclusive insights from one of Australia’s leading property experts, John McGrath.

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, keep up the great work and bye for now.

Regards

Greg Vincent