Ray White Upper North Shore

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Every year we have the opportunity to put the past behind us and plan for bigger and better – and in real estate this is no exception. In spite of a challenging year with lockdowns and other well-documented COVID related burdens we were able to prosper in a market that was largely tipped to crash. Mortgage brokers claim an almost 60% increase in borrowers waiting for approvals, these may be new buyers looking to capitalize on the cooling growth, or buyers seeking re-approval as their pre-approvals lapsed in a market that saw competition favoring sellers. Further, in 2021 investor loans jumped from $5.1B to $9.6B, up 87.5%, so a lot of this growth could be attributed to the investor market. We have certainly seen signs of good growth with 15-30% growth in most of our Upper North Shore and northern suburbs. Toward the end of last year, as news of slower growth spread, we started to meet new buyers in the market, with battle-hardened buyers paying the crazy prices conditioned by the ‘peak market’, the new buyers seeming a bit more nervous. The price growth is in most people’s eyes unsustainable so it is no surprise when we start to see the subtle changes in the market. However, the gains that most of us have made in our property is largely still there, the issue will be if we assume that this growth will continue forever. Based on the amount of buyers we are aware of, whether in the market or on the sidelines, I am confident that Q1 2022 will see good selling conditions. Australian housing prices lifted 1.3% in November, the 14th consecutive national increase in a row. However, in Sydney growth was a slight 0.9%, compared to the peak of the market in March where it was around 3%. What do we expect for the 2022 market? The RBA has almost guaranteed that interest rates will remain low until at least 2024 Some of the ‘big four’ and other larger banks have predicted between 5-10% growth this year, most sitting around 6%. Supply and demand was the main contributing factor to increasing prices in 2021, however a lot of data suggests that the supply side was actually not dramatically lower than expected, it seemed the demand was the outlier in the data. As we progress into the new year we predict continued growth, possibly at a slower rate than we experienced last year, but still in the seller’s direction. Thomas Merriman 0401 840 859 thomas.merriman@raywhite.com