NSW property prices might get a boost from the ongoing Sydney lockdown, according to a leading property expert.
Lloyd Edge, Director at Aus Property Professionals, said that the main source of demand would be investors, who are more willing to put their cash in without viewing a property first.
“Property prices are going to keep moving forward and investors are going to start coming into the market more,” said Edge.
“It’s probably going to put a bit of a dampener on home buyers, who have been driving the market most of the year, but now investors are going to start coming in. A lot of those are going to be people buying property sight unseen.”
The principle cause of the demand, however, will be the lack of supply caused by prospective sellers taking their properties off the market in anticipation of higher prices down the line.
“There’s going to be less stock,” said Edge. “Part of that is vendors taking their properties off the market and hoping to relist them after lockdown, while other vendors are not listing because of the lockdown. There’s been a couple of examples where they have been listed and then taken back off.”
“That lack of stock is going to put upwards pressure on prices because there’s still a lot of buyer demand around. Now, it’s hard for home buyers to get out and inspect property, so you see investors come back into the market.”
“In my world as a buyer’s agent, there’s still plenty of inquiries and people coming forward to do things. I’m not seeing any real signs of it slowing down.”
In particular, the end of lockdown combined with the traditional spring listing season could see prices pushed yet further upwards.
“For August and however long the lockdown goes for, there’s not going to be immediate growth, there’s going to be investors, but as soon as more properties get listed we’ll see home buyers come back,” explained Lloyd Edge.
“Spring time is usually a good time for listning things anyway and if we do come out of lockdown within the next month or six weeks – who knows how long it will actually be? – then I think there’s going to be more properties and they’ll be listed for more than they would have been before.”
