Happy long weekend, 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 hope you’ve enjoyed the sunny weather over the public holiday break. It looks like Summer has started to kick-in a bit earlier this year.

So let’s see what’s been happening this week..

Last week has been very interesting with property expert, John McGrath pointing out the resilience of property values as well as that,

“You might have noticed that two of the big banks upgraded their outlook for property prices this month.

Earlier in the year, Westpac predicted a 10 per cent price fall nationally between April 2020 and June 2021, followed by 4 per cent price rises per annum over the following two years.

They now predict a 5 per cent fall nationally by June 2021 and 15 per cent gains over the next two years.

The Commonwealth Bank initially predicted a 10 per cent fall peak-to-trough but have revised this to a 6 per cent fall.

Australian property is once again proving its resilience, even in challenging economic times.”

It was also very interesting to see a recent report from CoreLogic showed that Bowral in the Southern Highlands had experienced a 10.2% median price increase during the June Qtr and the median sale price changed over the 2020 Financial Year by a whopping 23.4%.

For example, it’s going to be really interesting to see what the upcoming Heron Todd White report says about what’s happening in the residential market and where Sydney’s housing market is currently positioned on the property clock when compared to the Southern Highlands market.

Now you may be wondering what the Southern Highlands market has to do with the acreage market in our area.

Well you see, there are a lot of buyers who have recently brought their decision for a lifestyle-change forward off the back of the Coronavirus pandemic and many are now looking at making a move out the city to more regional areas, and many have been heading down the Hume Highway to the Southern Highlands market.

...and just this week, I spoke with several acreage buyers coming from Sydney who had initially been looking at buying an acreage property in the Southern Highlands, but, now they’ve decided that acreage around the North West parts of Sydney’s fringes is a more appealing option for them due to a number of factors like having access to well established services nearby, the overall affordability of acreage in the area, the proximity/convenience of the acreages as well as the possibility to still commute into the city if/when required.

On top of that, with the prices rising dramatically down in the Southern Highlands, many are finding the market down there too competitive and it’s starting to get beyond their reach.

As I’ve reported previously, when looking at what’s happening in the acreage market, there are a lot of different scenarios which impact the acreage sector and it isn’t just a matter of looking at what’s happening to the housing market of Sydney and expect that we’re simply going to follow that trend, we need to take a broader view of the market.

How’s The Acreage Market?

Currently there are 369 acreage properties For Sale across the region. This total includes 203 acreage properties For Sale throughout The Hawkesbury, 111 throughout The Hills district and another 55 acreages For Sale within Sydney’s North-West acreage areas of Penrith and Blacktown.
There were 15 new acreage listings come onto the market this week. There were only 4 acreage properties Sold this week but a more positive indication that the acreage market is becoming more active is that there are currently 30 acreage properties ‘Under Contract’ across the region.

Out in the field this week, we have had a busy week of enquiries and despite it being the long weekend we had a great turn out at the ‘Halcyon Lodge’ property at 10 Bennelong Place, East Kurrajong which has attracted an incredible amount of interest over the past week with numerous 2nd inspections taking place and a number offers already on the table.

Also, 40 Pitt Street in Richmond went ‘Under Contract’ this week and even though it’s not an acreage property, when I listed the home I said to the owners that I believed that their ideal buyer would be somebody looking to downsize from nearby acreage and that has turned out to be the case.

It looks like it’s going to be a busy buying & selling period between now and the end of the year, with Christmas now only 11 weeks away.

If you’re thinking of buying or selling acreage this year, right now could be the perfect time to make your move.

Plus, if you’re looking for an acreage property I currently have a number of acreages for sale ‘Off-Market’. If you want to be amongst the first to get access to at any of my ‘off-market’ listings, 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