As Australia’s property market slows, vendors trying to save money by selling off-market risk losing up to $60,000 in potential earnings, according to a new PropTrack report.
A detailed analysis of sale prices for homes sold off-market compared to those listed on realestate.com.au showed houses sold off-market achieved sales prices 3.8% less than those listed, on average. That equates to an average loss of more than $60,000 in Greater Sydney.
Units sold for 1.3% less off-market, on average, but sellers in some cities saw an even bigger loss, particularly in Greater Sydney, where units sold for 2.9% less, equating to more than $25,000 in losses, on average.
“Deciding to sell off-market may come at a significant cost to sellers,” said Paul Ryan, PropTrack senior economist and report author. “While some sellers might try to save money by not advertising online, this analysis shows the potential earnings lost in the final sale price far outweighs the initial cost of advertising – particularly in a market with prices falling. These results are based on sales from July 2021 to March 2022, when home price growth slowed rapidly, and reflect the losses for selling off-market in current slowing market conditions, a key consideration for sellers as home prices decline further over the next year.”
Findings also showed that off-market sales in locations with median prices between $500,000 and $750,000 perform the worst nationally, with off-market sales in these areas achieving 4.2% lower sale prices.
Ian Dempsey, Ray White Preston director, said it is very much important to advertise a property for sale online in the current property market.
“With home prices falling, a strong marketing campaign can be the difference between securing the best price possible and settling for a price below a vendor’s expectations,” Dempsey said. “As the number-one agent in my core area, I encourage my clients to invest in an online digital marketing campaign if they want to achieve the optimum result. Attracting the largest possible pool of potential buyers translates into inspections and inevitably, bidders at auction or offers. The wider a vendor casts a net for buyers the better, because you end up with more competition and ultimately a higher price.”
Dempsey recently sold a property in Melbourne’s Preston for $1,524,000 after advertising on realestate.com.au. Off-market, the offers ranged between $1,200,000 and $1,300,000.
“We encouraged our vendors to list their home to drive competition and reach a wider pool of potential buyers,” he said. “We went from six inspections off-market to 224 inspections across the period of the campaign, driving the price up in only four weeks.”
