The Property Market Has Changed — and So Has the Advice

The easy years of Australian real estate are behind us — at least for now.

There was a time when you could list a property and watch it sell well above reserve. Agents appeared to hold a magic wand. Buyers’ agents were treated like messiahs simply for securing a property. Rising prices forgave almost everything.

Today the market is speaking a very different language.

Sell first, then buy

“Buy before you sell” is beginning to feel like the old bridging-finance era — a habit left over from a market that no longer exists. With fewer buyers and more stock, the prudent conversation is now the reverse. Sell first. Then buy.

That change puts its own pressure on prices. A vendor who must sell before they can buy cannot wait for last year’s number. They have to deal with the one figure that ultimately matters — what someone is actually prepared to pay today.

The three Ds

Death, divorce and debt. They are behind a good share of sales in every market I have worked through since 1990.

In a rising market they are disguised. Capital growth covers the gap, the seller walks away ahead, and nobody asks why the property was sold. In a correcting market there is nothing to hide behind. The forced sale becomes very visible — and it sets the price for everyone else in the street.

A clifftop in Tamarama

Look at 9 Kenneth Street, Tamarama. An oceanfront site — a block of five apartments and a beach shack, with nothing between it and the water. About as scarce as Eastern Suburbs land gets.

At the height of the last boom it was guided at $20 million and sold for $29.2 million, a suburb record at the time. On Saturday 26 September it went to auction as a mortgagee sale. Three bidders registered. The reserve was $24 million and was adjusted on the day. It sold for $20.25 million.

Same site. Same position. Different market.

Nothing about the land changed. The money did. The $9 million in between was never value — it was the cycle.

It is not one sale

It would be comfortable to call Tamarama a one-off. The evidence says otherwise.

The market is not falling evenly. Cotality’s figures show the lower-priced end holding up far better than the top. But the direction is plain, and buyers know it. They have more choice, less urgency and dearer money. They are entitled to be cautious.

Where advice earns its keep

The fundamentals of marketing a property are available to every agency. Portals, photography, databases, social media and advertising are not exclusive to one brand. The size of the agency or the name above the door does not determine what your property is worth.

What matters far more in this market is the advice. The timing. The pricing strategy. The approach.

Go back to Tamarama. The gap between the reserve and the result was $3.75 million. That is the distance between expectation and evidence — and it is far better closed in a quiet conversation before a campaign begins than on an auction floor in front of a crowd.

It is a changing market that tells you who actually understands real estate.