Acreage Market Wrap - 1st November 2020

Hi, my name is Greg Vincent and welcome to this week’s Acreage Market Wrap where I share an insight into How’s The Acreage Market?

The past two months of Spring has been a very active period in the acreage market, especially when you consider how COVID-19 has actually impacted the property market in a number of positive ways, especially amongst the regional markets.

This week, the 52 page McGrath Report 2021 was released which answers the all important question…

‘HAS COVID-19 CHANGED REAL ESTATE FOREVER?’

The report features John McGrath’s Top Picks, an insight into property trends which also includes a feature article about THE GREAT REGIONAL RELOCATION AHEAD.

If you’d like to grab your Free copy of the McGrath Report 2021, you can access it via this link.

https://www.mcgrath.com.au/advice/guides/the-mcgrath-report-2021

Also, another positive sign for economic recovery was getting to see the pictures last week of hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses rolling off a production line at Pfizer, with the CEO announcing they expect to be ready to seek FDA approval for emergency use in the US in the third week of November, if all goes well with impending trial results.

Watch what happens to the acreage market if that gets the green light!

So, How’s The Acreage Market?

Currently there are 377 acreage properties For Sale across the region. This total includes 195 acreage properties For Sale throughout The Hawkesbury plus there are 122 acreages For Sale throughout The Hills district and another 60 acreages For Sale within Sydney’s North-West acreage areas of Penrith and Blacktown.

Overall there were 16 new acreage listings come onto the market this week, which included 8 new listings in the Hawkesbury, 4 new listings in the Hills.

There were a total of 12 acreage properties Sold this week (which was almost double the number that Sold last week) plus there are currently 25 acreage properties ‘Under Contract’ across the region, with 17 of those properties ‘Under Contract’ located in The Hawkesbury.

Out in the field this week, the steady flow of acreage enquiries continued from city dwellers looking to escape to an acreage lifestyle.

Also, this week I’m about to launch the brand new marketing strategy that I’ve designed specifically to attract even more acreage buyers to my acreage listings. This is a highly-targeted selling strategy that has been developed exclusively through McGrath and it’s not available via any other agent.

Whether you’d like to part of this new acreage marketing strategy or if you’d like to sell your property via our ‘Off-Market’ acres system, either way we’ve got you covered.

Plus, if you’re looking to purchase an acreage property I currently have a several acreages for sale ‘Off-Market’. So, if you want to be amongst the first to get early access to any of my ‘off-market’ listings, check out... www.offmarketacres.com.au

So, that’s it for this week’s Acreage Market Wrap.

If you’ve got any questions about anything I’ve shared this week or would like to discuss any of your acreage plans with me, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Thanks for watching, stay safe, grab a copy of the FREE Report and bye for now.

Regards

Greg Vincent

Acreage Market Wrap - 24th October 2020

Hi, my name is Greg Vincent and welcome to this week’s Acreage Market Wrap where I share an insight into How’s The Acreage Market?

Following the record-breaking budget announcement on October 6th, the government has made it clear they want to support the housing market at all costs with the removal of responsible lending guidelines which should have a positive impact on the market especially with a suspected rate cut from 0.25% to 0.10% being predicted by a vast majority of analysts at the upcoming Reserve Bank meeting in November.

You see, what’s happened is that lending policy had gone too far after ASIC lost its responsible lending case against Westpac, as the RBA and Treasury both issued warnings against the strict policies causing potential economic impact.

Less than a week later, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced he would overhaul the laws governing mortgages, personal loans, credit cards, and payday lending to streamline decisions on whether customers can afford the loans they seek.

This is promising news for the recovery of the COVID 19 economic recession, as a flow of loans will be encouraged due to less onerous credit rules accompanied by easing interest rates. 

Ultimately, customers will face faster access to loans under simpler rules, taking away the confusion over lending obligations for banks and finance companies.

It will soon be easier for Australians to take out mortgages and refinance their home loans and there has already been a surge in the market with new housing finance data showing a record $16.3 billion in new home loans for owner occupiers.

Combined with record low interest rates, long overdue easing of responsible lending, consistent healthy clearance rates and more new listings coming online, there is good news for both acreage owners and for buyers.

Also, Herron Todd White came out with their October report and it was interesting to see that Sydney, Melbourne & the Central Coast remained in the Declining Market position on the flip-side the lifestyle areas like the Southern Highlands, the Gold Coast, Coffs Harbour and Ballina/Byron Bay are in the midst of a very active, rising market as the working from home flexibility is seeing a flood of buyers are seizing this opportunity to escape away from the city (to a more affordable lifestyle) while they still can.

As I’ve reported previously, I feel that the acreage sector will play a very important role in Australia’s economic recovery, especially after the record levels of investment in infrastructure planned by both the Federal Government and the NSW Government.

Today I spoke to a client of mine who is involved in large scale projects and he said that they have seen a large increase in the number on major infrastructure projects that are planned to commence in these next 12 months.

So with so much construction and housing development planned, the urban sprawl is naturally going to bring forward rezonings around the fringes of existing residential suburbs, plus, there’s going to be an increase in demand for land to store equipment and machinery as industrial property continues to be an expensive option (for example 1/2 an acre of vacant land in St Marys industrial area is currently demanding $95,000 per year and that’s just for an empty block of land) ...then when you add on top all of the people in Sydney who want to move onto acreage for a better lifestyle, we’re going to see the demand for acreage starting to outstrip the supply which will put upward pressure on acreage prices.

How’s The Acreage Market?

Currently there are 379 acreage properties For Sale across the region. This total includes 193 acreage properties For Sale throughout The Hawkesbury (which reduced by over 5% from last week), plus there are 124 acreages For Sale throughout The Hills district (which is off the back of a 7% increase in the available acreage stock in the Hills compared to last week) and another 58 acreages For Sale within Sydney’s North-West acreage areas of Penrith and Blacktown.

Overall there were 29 new acreage listings come onto the market this week, which included 9 new listings in the Hawkesbury, 15 new listings in the Hills.

There were a total of 7 acreage properties Sold this week (none of which were in the Hills area) but a really positive indication that the acreage market is on the move more is that there are currently 28 acreage properties ‘Under Contract’ across the region, with a total 17 of the properties ‘Under Contract’ located in The Hawkesbury.

Out in the field this week, we have had a really busy week with 29 Stringer Road, Kellyville, 40 Pitt Street, Richmond selling for a record price of $1.23m to some local buyers downsizing from acres as well as an excellent turn-out witnessed the acreage property at 68-76 Whitegates Road, Londonderry sell under the hammer for $1.9m which was way above the reserve price. Once again Paul Grech our McGrath auctioneer did an excellent job with the 7 registered bidders and a total of 26 bids generating an outstanding result for the owners.

Also, three more acreage properties at 355 Blaxlands Ridge Road, Blaxlands Ridge, 209 Greens Road, Lower Portland and 50A St Marys Road, Berkshire Park went ‘Under Contract’ this week plus I listed 2 acreage properties that should come onto the market this week. One of them is an absolutely incredible ‘jaw-dropping’ property in Windsor Downs and the other is a unique creek front property in Londonderry. Make sure you keep an eye out for them.

It’s going to be a busy selling period between now and Christmas. So, if you’re thinking of taking advantage of the active Spring market right now could be the perfect time to make your move.

Also, this week I’ve been working on a brand new marketing strategy for acreage, which has been designed specifically to attract lots more acreage buyers to my acreage listings. This is a highly-targeted selling strategy that has been developed exclusively through McGrath and it’s not available via any other agent.

Whether you’d like to part of this new acreage marketing strategy or if you’d like to sell your property via our ‘Off-Market’ acres system, either way we’ve got you covered.

Alternatively, if you’re looking to purchase an acreage property I currently have a several acreages for sale ‘Off-Market’. So, if you want to be amongst the first to get early access to any of my ‘off-market’ listings, check out... www.offmarketacres.com.au

So, that’s it for this week’s Acreage Market Wrap.

If you’ve got any questions about anything I’ve shared this week or would like to discuss any of your acreage plans with me, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Thanks for watching, stay safe Go The Panthers and bye for now.

Regards

Greg Vincent

Acreage Market Wrap - 5th October 2020

Happy long weekend, my name is Greg Vincent and welcome to this week’s Acreage Market Wrap where I share an insight into How’s The Acreage Market?

I hope you’ve enjoyed the sunny weather over the public holiday break. It looks like Summer has started to kick-in a bit earlier this year.

So let’s see what’s been happening this week..

Last week has been very interesting with property expert, John McGrath pointing out the resilience of property values as well as that,

“You might have noticed that two of the big banks upgraded their outlook for property prices this month.

Earlier in the year, Westpac predicted a 10 per cent price fall nationally between April 2020 and June 2021, followed by 4 per cent price rises per annum over the following two years.

They now predict a 5 per cent fall nationally by June 2021 and 15 per cent gains over the next two years.

The Commonwealth Bank initially predicted a 10 per cent fall peak-to-trough but have revised this to a 6 per cent fall.

Australian property is once again proving its resilience, even in challenging economic times.”

It was also very interesting to see a recent report from CoreLogic showed that Bowral in the Southern Highlands had experienced a 10.2% median price increase during the June Qtr and the median sale price changed over the 2020 Financial Year by a whopping 23.4%.

For example, it’s going to be really interesting to see what the upcoming Heron Todd White report says about what’s happening in the residential market and where Sydney’s housing market is currently positioned on the property clock when compared to the Southern Highlands market.

Now you may be wondering what the Southern Highlands market has to do with the acreage market in our area.

Well you see, there are a lot of buyers who have recently brought their decision for a lifestyle-change forward off the back of the Coronavirus pandemic and many are now looking at making a move out the city to more regional areas, and many have been heading down the Hume Highway to the Southern Highlands market.

...and just this week, I spoke with several acreage buyers coming from Sydney who had initially been looking at buying an acreage property in the Southern Highlands, but, now they’ve decided that acreage around the North West parts of Sydney’s fringes is a more appealing option for them due to a number of factors like having access to well established services nearby, the overall affordability of acreage in the area, the proximity/convenience of the acreages as well as the possibility to still commute into the city if/when required.

On top of that, with the prices rising dramatically down in the Southern Highlands, many are finding the market down there too competitive and it’s starting to get beyond their reach.

As I’ve reported previously, when looking at what’s happening in the acreage market, there are a lot of different scenarios which impact the acreage sector and it isn’t just a matter of looking at what’s happening to the housing market of Sydney and expect that we’re simply going to follow that trend, we need to take a broader view of the market.

How’s The Acreage Market?

Currently there are 369 acreage properties For Sale across the region. This total includes 203 acreage properties For Sale throughout The Hawkesbury, 111 throughout The Hills district and another 55 acreages For Sale within Sydney’s North-West acreage areas of Penrith and Blacktown.

There were 15 new acreage listings come onto the market this week. There were only 4 acreage properties Sold this week but a more positive indication that the acreage market is becoming more active is that there are currently 30 acreage properties ‘Under Contract’ across the region.

Out in the field this week, we have had a busy week of enquiries and despite it being the long weekend we had a great turn out at the ‘Halcyon Lodge’ property at 10 Bennelong Place, East Kurrajong which has attracted an incredible amount of interest over the past week with numerous 2nd inspections taking place and a number offers already on the table.

Also, 40 Pitt Street in Richmond went ‘Under Contract’ this week and even though it’s not an acreage property, when I listed the home I said to the owners that I believed that their ideal buyer would be somebody looking to downsize from nearby acreage and that has turned out to be the case.

It looks like it’s going to be a busy buying & selling period between now and the end of the year, with Christmas now only 11 weeks away.

If you’re thinking of buying or selling acreage this year, right now could be the perfect time to make your move.

Plus, if you’re looking for an acreage property I currently have a number of acreages for sale ‘Off-Market’. If you want to be amongst the first to get access to at any of my ‘off-market’ listings, make sure to check out... www.offmarketacres.com.au

So, that’s it for this week’s Acreage Market Wrap.

If you’ve got any questions about anything I’ve shared this week or would like to discuss any of your acreage plans with me, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Thanks for watching, stay safe and bye for now.

Regards

Greg Vincent

Acreage Market Wrap - 27th September 2020

Hi, my name is Greg Vincent and welcome to this week’s Acreage Market Wrap where I share an insight into How’s The Acreage Market?

Firstly to all the Victorians, we're all thinking of you and hope you're getting towards the end of your lockdown restrictions during this pandemic. After today’s announcement by Premier Daniel Andrews, it looks like Victorian lockdown restrictions will slowly become relaxed and with private inspections of properties now allowed I anticipate that we will see a significant increase in the number of buyers not only looking to move out of Victoria but they’ll also be looking to escape away from the city life and head out in search of an acreage lifestyle.

We are already experiencing an increase in enquiry from city-dwellers looking to get away from suburbia. Recently I’ve been speaking with a lot of cashed-up buyers who are coming from affluent parts of Sydney like Eastern Suburbs, Lower North Shore, Northern Beaches and The Shire and they are really keen to move onto acres. So if you’re thinking of selling your acreage, please get in touch because I currently have a lot of buyers on my books waiting for the right acreage property to come available.

The surge in activity is due to the affordability and perceived convenience of acreage around Sydney’s fringes for the large number of city dwellers who are heading to the countryside because of COVID-19 lockdowns changing workplace flexibility which is now allowing many to work from home, and yet they still want to be able to commute to their workplace if and when required...and acreage within this area ticks a lot of those boxes for them.

In other news, even though interest rates look set to remain at historically low levels, the banks have recently been very stringent with their lending due to the Coronavirus and loan processing was taking a lot longer than usual. Major lenders had been behaving very similarly to how they were back at the beginning of 2019 when the Banking Royal Commission recommendations were handed down.

There is a real threat that stemming the flow of lending along with increases in unemployment could see the current single digit correction in the Sydney housing sector continue into the first half of next year and possibly beyond.

Thankfully, on Friday, The Federal Treasurer, Josh Freidenberg announced “Simpler lending rules for home loans and credit to free up the economy” which should help remove one of the biggest financial choke points that’s been holding the flow of money back from the property market over recent months.

As David Crowe of the Sydney Morning Herald reported, “Customers will be promised faster access to loans under simpler rules that aim to free up credit and lift the economy by ending confusion over lending obligations for banks and finance companies.”

Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that these new rules are going to get implemented fast enough to help homebuyers in 2020, as “the government prepares to unveil tax cuts and spending measures in the October 6 budget, the lending reforms are intended to improve access to credit from March next year if Parliament approves the changes to the Credit Act.” But, it is a move in the right direction and if the writing is on the wall that these changes will come into effect it’s likely that some of the 2nd tier lenders may become a bit more relaxed with their lending in anticipation of the decision.

Freeing up the money flow will have a positive impact on the acreage market.

How’s The Acreage Market?

Currently there are 380 acreage properties For Sale across the region. This total includes 208 acreage properties For Sale throughout The Hawkesbury, 115 throughout The Hills district and another 57 acreages For Sale within Sydney’s North-West acreage areas of Penrith and Blacktown.

There were 26 new acreage listings come onto the market this week. There were only 9 acreage properties Sold this week and there are currently 27 acreage properties ‘Under Contract’ across the region.

Out in the field this week, the exclusive acreage property ‘Dadirri’ at 83 Serpentine Lane, Bowen Mountain was Sold for $2.1m which must be a suburb record for Bowen Mountain. Also, the E4 zoned acreage property at 25 Stringer Road, Kellyville has gone ‘Under Contract’ plus we held the first Open Homes for 3 new listings this week which includes the enormous 10 bedroom home on 5 acres at 4-8 Dodford Road, Llandilo, a stunning resort-style dual accomodation home at 355 Blaxlands Ridge Road, Blaxlands Ridge and the spectacular ‘Halcyon Lodge’ property at 10 Bennelong Place, East Kurrajong which has attracted an incredible amount of interest in only a few days of being on the market.

It’s been a busy week with acreage enquiries increasing dramatically and it looks like October and November are going to be an even busier time to be selling acreage properties this Spring.

If you’re thinking of buying or selling acreage this year, right now could be the perfect time to make your move.

Plus, if you’re looking for an acreage property I currently have a number of acreages for sale ‘Off-Market’. If you want to be amongst the early-bird buyers to gain the first look at any of my ‘off-market’ listings, make sure to check out... www.offmarketacres.com.au

So, that’s it for this week’s Acreage Market Wrap.

If you’ve got any questions about anything I’ve shared this week or would like to discuss any of your acreage plans with me, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Thanks for watching, stay safe and bye for now.

Regards

Greg Vincent

Acreage Market Wrap - 19th September 2020

Hi, my name is Greg Vincent and welcome to this week’s Acreage Market Wrap where I share an insight into How’s The Acreage Market? 

As I’ve said previously, don’t believe everything you read in the newspapers and don’t get sucked into the media hype. Anyone can manipulate the stats to make things look better or worse than they actually are. It’s important if you’re looking at making a move onto acreage that you make the decision based on your life first & foremost and take a much broader view of what’s happening in the market.

The reason I wanted to remind my viewers about taking a broader view and looking at acreage more from a long term basis is because you may get fooled into all the negative talk about what’s currently happening within the property market in the major cities, but, at the moment the opposite seems to be happening in the regional segment of the market.

Lots of people are getting out of the city because their work has become a more flexible environment along with a combination of both the Coronavirus and Gentrification, many Aussies are literally heading for the hills in search of a better, more affordable, more relaxed, rural lifestyle.

Whilst reports show that the Sydney market has experienced a correction, the single-digit adjustment to prices is nowhere near the double-digit collapse in property prices that the doomsayers were predicting about 6 months ago.

In fact, Australian property expert, John McGrath’s report earlier this week provided a detailed outline of What’s keeping property prices stable? I

t’s an eye-opening article and I highly recommend you check it out if you’re interested in what’s happening within the housing sector.

Here’s a link to John McGrath’s article

How’s The Acreage Market?

Currently there are 367 acreage properties For Sale across the region (which is a 4% reduction in available acreage stock overall when compared with than last week). This total includes 203 acreage properties For Sale throughout The Hawkesbury, 107 throughout The Hills district and another 57 acreages For Sale within Sydney’s North-West acreage areas of Penrith and Blacktown.

There were only 11 new acreage listings come onto the market this week which is a drop of nearly 1/3 of the volume of new stock hitting the market when compared to last week. There were another 16 acreage properties Sold this week which almost doubled last week’s sales results and there are currently 25 acreage properties ‘Under Contract’ across the region which indicates that there’s definitely been an increase in sales activity occurring within the acreage sector.

Out in the field this week, the 5 acres property at 114 Fisher Road, Marayla SOLD for $1.6m and lots of buyers contacted me earlier in the week to check on the 5.9 acres place at 1-5 Dodford Road, Llandilo which was SOLD at last Saturday’s auction for $1.7m.

Also, it looks like both parties have reached agreement on an offer for the unique E4 zoned acreage property at 25 Stringer Road, Kellyville and contracts for the stunning ‘Dadirri’ property at 83 Serpentine Lane, Bowen Mountain look like being exchanged unconditionally sometime this week.

It’s been another busy week fielding acreage buyer enquiries and getting prepared for 3 new acreage listings to enter the Spring Market.

If you’re thinking of buying or selling acreage settled into your new place ahead of Christmas, right now could be the perfect time to make your move.

Plus, if you’re looking to secure an acreage property and want to be amongst the early-bird buyers who gain the advantage of getting the first look at my ‘off-market’ listings, make sure to check out... www.offmarketacres.com.au

So, that’s it for this week’s Acreage Market Wrap.

If you’ve got any questions about anything I’ve shared this week or would like to discuss any of your acreage plans with me, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Thanks for watching, stay safe and bye for now.

Regards

Greg Vincent