We are one week in to Metropolitan Melbourne now being allowed to conduct private inspections and there is no doubt the property market is active. There was a lot of confusion at the start of the week as to what was and wasn’t allowed but there now has been some clarity around that. In addition to private inspections, photographers, videographers and stylists are allowed access to the property which means newly listed properties will come onto the market, and building inspectors are allowed on site.
So you would think that it is now business as usual however I don’t believe the amount of private inspections that the selling agents are currently conducting is sustainable. I spoke to countless number of selling agents who had been standing at the one property all day, everyday, showing ‘qualified’ buyers through. Some agents having to conduct over 100 inspections for the week with their executive assistants helping to open properties and working Sunday to get all the prospective buyers through.
This does show though that there is buyer demand with many agents reporting the buyers coming through their properties are new to the market. Stock levels still remain low but we believe that will increase over the coming weeks as new properties come onto the market.
We had an extremely busy week at Elite with back to back private inspections for our clients and many zoom meetings with prospective purchasers. We also secured a property at 9pm Saturday night after only viewing it at 4pm that day. Some properties are selling quickly and we are expecting a very busy spring season.
In Regional Victoria, Vicky Whittaker (Elite Buyer Agents – Regional) purchased a terrific off market property in Geelong for our client. Our client’s brief was to purchase a development site with potential for three townhouses for around $700,000 which we were able to achieve. There has been an increase in off market properties being listed and there have also been many reports of Melbourne buyers purchasing properties sight unseen.
Stay dry and have a great week.
Kim Easterbrook