Back at the end of January, Louis Christopher from SQM Research shared in-depth Australian Real Estate Market Predictions for 2020 when he caught up with Real Estate Coach, Tom Panos and during this report Louis Christopher mentioned that COVID-19 could impact the market but at the time he was referring to it more from the viewpoint of what impact it was having on the Chinese economy, not so much from a global pandemic perspective nor with the hindsight of what impact the Coronavirus was going to have on the Australian economy.

This was the first time that I had heard any of the real estate forecasters mention Coronavirus. Louis Christopher’s previous forecast included 4 different scenarios within his 2020 Boom & Bust Report Forecasts.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t a 5th scenario factored into that 2020 Boom & Bust Report. The real impact that the Coronavirus was going to have on the global economy was impossible to predict. To see the previous report, click here

Markets are fluid and one of the quotes that I heard about how to adapt during this pandemic is…

You can’t stop the waves but you can learn how to surf.

As Tom Panos said towards the end of their previous interview… “A lot of things can happen in 12 weeks, who knows we may have been sprung a surprise - something has happened or some sort of crash that no-one expected”.

So now with COVID-19 LockDowns in effect and the Federal Government providing Financial Relief packages almost daily plus with 2 drops in interest rates by the Reserve Bank along with a significant drop in both the Stock Market and the Australian Dollar since the Australian Real Estate Market Predictions 2020 was originally recorded, I feel that tonight’s interview between Tom Panos and Louis Christopher is a must watch for anyone wanting to gain a greater insight into… What Impact Is The Coronavirus Having On The Housing Market?

Louis Christopher from SQM Research is one of Australia's most recognised and respected property analysts, and also one of the most conservative and accurate analysts that Tom Panos knows.

In this video interview Tom & Louis talk about the much-anticipated topic: How the Australian real estate market will be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. What are the short term and long term impacts?

11:44 – Is it a buyer’s market or a seller’s market right now?

12:34 – What type of clearance rates are we seeing with digital auctions?

18:40 – The two possible scenarios following COVID-19. Should we be hopeful? Or could we be entering into a depression?

19:50 – When we can expect lockdown restrictions to be lifted?

23:13 – Has Australia done a good job responding to the COVID-19 pandemic?

25:05 – What’s the difference between a recession and a depression? Where does this fit in?

30:36 – What is the situation with rentals right now?

36:19 – What type of agents will survive this period of uncertainty? Will there be casualties?

39:44 – What changes can we expect in the global supply network?

44:35 – What are the opportunities, and why we should be optimistic.

47:30 – What is the outlook post-Coronavirus?

So What’s Happening In The Acreage Market?

Back on the 25th January when I shared the Australian Real Estate Market Predictions for 2020 here, I reported that there were…

“360 acreage properties for sale across all suburbs within the Hawkesbury, Hills and North-West Sydney region that I outline within The Acreage Report and in this past week there have been 3 acreages Sold, 13 are Under Offer and there were 11 New Listings, which shows that the number of sales will need to increase significantly to reduce the amount of available supply before we’ll start to see prices increasing as much as they have been in the Sydney housing market.”

When you compare the above figures from January against those that I shared in yesterday’s Acreage Market Wrap - 4th April 2020 below, it’s clear that the oversupply of acreage stock has been increasing.

Currently there a total of 426 acreage properties For Sale across the entire region. This overall total includes 231 acreage properties For Sale throughout all of The Hawkesbury, 133 in The Hills and another 62 acreages For Sale within Sydney’s North-West acreage areas of Penrith and Blacktown.
This week, there’s been an additional 21 new acreage listings come onto the market but again there were only 3 acreage properties Sold this week plus there’s been a slight decrease to the number of acreages that are ‘Under Contract’, but, even so it's good to see that there are still 14 acreage properties currently ‘Under Contract’ across the region.
In March, there were a total of 86 new acreage listings come onto the market and 25 acreage properties were sold. The Hawkesbury had 12 sold, The Hills had 8 sold and 5 sales occurred in the Penrith & Blacktown Acreage suburbs we cover.

The current oversupply of acreage stock looks set to increase even further over the coming weeks or at least up until we go into a COVID-19 LockDown Stage #4 (if we do), which may slow down the number of New Listings being uploaded onto Realestate.com.au.

However, there’s likely to be an increase in the number of acreage properties listed ‘Off-Market’ during the LockDown period. Which is where ‘Off-Market Acres’ will be able to provide an excellent solution for acreage owners.

If you’d like to find out more about How’s The Acreage Market? or What Buying Or Selling ‘Off-Market’ Actually Means, don’t hesitate to get in contact with me or alternatively you can register here

I hope you find this information helpful

Regards

Greg Vincent