House or Home?

Soaring property prices in the Sydney and Illawarra regions have left many young people fearing they will never break into the housing market. 

 

House or Home? aims to showcase both success and flop stories to highlight the difficulties of buying a home as a millennial.

Navigating the Market

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Are you struggling to purchase your first property?

 

First home buyers are getting older.

 

Millennials are staying at home longer.

 

The landscape of real estate has evolved over time and

in the last 5 to 10 years, there has been a significant surge

in housing development.

 

To gain a deeper understanding of the housing market we reached out to Luke Barbuto, a former real estate agent, now project sales manager for Highland Property Agents.

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The real estate market has changed in the last 10 years

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Due to the rising population, there is always a constant increase in housing development.

 

In the last 10 years, the state government has pushed for an increase in housing due to the high population, especially in denser areas surrounding town centres. 

 

I work within the Sutherland LGA and the suburbs that have a high development rate are:

• Cronulla: beachfront properties, busy food/nightlife, retail stores

• Miranda: close to Cronulla and houses a large Westfield shopping centre

• Kirrawee: large retail and hospitality establishments on the main street

• Gymea: new shopping centre/apartments to compete with neighbouring suburbs

 

When town centres are built, houses are built around them.

 

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Millennials and first-home buyers are struggling to find property

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Millennials are staying at home and buying closer to what they want to live in, aiming for their first property to have more beds and baths, to be bigger.

 

Instead of buying a one-bedroom apartment and working their way up, which has long been the norm, they are determined to wait longer to save more.

 

Millennial expectations are increasing. With desires for a bigger house, sometimes they are not priced out of the market - but are priced out of their expectations.

 

Young people also seem to be buying investment properties over houses. 

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There's been a shift in the type of housing developments being built

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Nowadays housing development has shifted, big blocks of land are less common and large multi-bedroom houses are in less demand.

 

Large blocks of land and suburban streets are being sliced up. Geared towards smaller dwellings, apartment complexes and duplexes.

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Methods real estate agencies use to attract buyers

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First home buyers are enticed on price, agents will market their price over anything. 

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What’s the price? - This draws the buyers and from there they start to research the details, dimensions, photos, videos, etc.

 

Price is the key factor.

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How COVID-19 affected the market

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The COVID-19 pandemic has seen an increase in supply and pricing.

People have been stuck at home and a lot of them now want to move, so the price has gone up.

 

In 2 years, the transaction numbers of property have gone up by at least 20 per cent.

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The price of property has gone up in the market by 10 to 15 per cent.

 

That is a big difference for a first-home buyer who decided to buy right at the start of COVID-19 when the market dipped compared to later on during the pandemic when the market rose back up.

 

The market is impossible to predict, although there are cycles and adjustments, the market will always rise, reset and rise again.

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