Ray White Upper North Shore

Ray White Lower North Shore Group REPORT The Market in Financial Year 2021 Part of the prestige of the Lower North Shore has long been its high-end real estate offerings. This year, we’ve seen the pandemic unmistakably amplify the appeal of our property sector. In this report, I look at the many factors that have shaped the property market of FY21. Not least of which is the reality that we’re all spending more time at home, and subsequently the bricks and mortar we surround ourselves with have taken heightened relevance to our quality of life. This lifestyle we all enjoy on the Lower North Shore has come under the global spotlight thanks to COVID-19. Expats boomeranging home to our market island has caused a flood of potential buyers. The ordinarily healthy and buoyant property market of the Lower North Shore has experienced an unprecedented boom thanks to COVID-19. The way we live, the way we work and the way we socialise has fundamentally changed. Emphasis has shifted to the home. Buyers – and indeed people who did not think they would be selling or buying again for some time – began looking at homes in different ways and re-evaluating what was important. Despite financial volatility worldwide, our property market bounded. It was certainly helped by the Reserve Bank response in dropping the official cash rate to historic lows of 0.1%. As you know, banks followed suit. Lending became cheap, credit became easily accessible and buyers flocked to the market. Australia-wide, property prices increased. In fact, the nation recorded the largest value rise on record. Australia’s 10.6 million residential dwellings are now worth more than $8.2 trillion, after rising by a stupendous $449.9 billion in the March quarter to breach the $8-trillion mark for the first time. Here in the Lower North Shore, price growth was conspicuous. Take just one of our auctions, a quintessential five-bedroom Mosman family home. In spring the vendors were contemplating going to auction with the estimated value on the property sitting between $4.2 million and $4.4 million. Fast forward to February when they did commit to selling, as market conditions soared, the property sold for $5.5 million – more than 25% above market expectations. More broadly, in the last 12 months we saw an astounding 150% increase in the number of properties for sale over $10m. The Mosman area alone grew in price by 21.3% with median house prices now sitting at $4,427,000. Market 2.0 a look back at this unforgettable financial year for property in our patch Richard Harding, Principal & Co-founder