Lessons learned and trends observed from the real estate market in 2023 – realestate.com.au

News Corp Australia Network

Lessons learned from the property market this year.

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Victorian homebuyers have made 2023 a year to “future proof” their life by buying properties where their ageing parents or older children can live under the one roof.

Prominent buyer’s advocate Cate Bakos said a growing number of client were looking for a residence that could transform into a multi-generational home so elderly parents could help with the grandkids.

“That could be rental affordability or people being able to live a bit more closely together now that the Covid is behind us,” she said.

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Ms Bakos said the desire for generational homes could be a key lesson in what families have wanted from their home in 2023, after the numbers of people living in each home dropped during the pandemic.

“And I think we can anticipate that growing because people will need to get creative to try and counteract the housing supply issue that we’ve got, particularly from the rental market,” she said.

Ms Bakos said it had broadly been a balanced market.

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With a raft of taxes imposed on Victorian rental providers throughout the year, including increased land taxes, she said many had chosen to sell their additional properties.

“Agents are selling quite a few investor properties; it’s broadly been a balanced market all year, which means we’ve had pretty good buyer sentiment to soak up some of these listings,” she said.

However, Caine Real Estate chief executive and Real Estate Institute of Victoria president Jacob Caine said increased taxes weren’t the main reason property investors were selling.

“Yes, there’s a lot of investors selling at the moment, but they’re also capitalising on the opportunity to realise some increase in price for the first time in a few years,” Mr Caine said.

“I think in 2024 we won’t see an exodus of investment property owners out of the rental market; (property) is still the most bankable, reliable and safe investment option to Australians.”

Mr Caine said rent price hikes were a result of a “snapback” effect from the pandemic.

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He added increased rent prices this year were the result of a “snapback” effect from the pandemic when rents either declined or stayed the same, and they might well rise further.

“We’ve got about 1000 properties under management and across that whole portfolio, rents are still below, as an average, where they were in 2020,” he said.

Mr Caine said tenants would likely face more modest rent rises in the $5-$10 a week range in 2024 as opposed to the $25-$50 a week changes some faced this year.

With delays, rising costs and labour shortages hindering the construction industry throughout the year, Mr Caine said properties that needed to be renovated weren’t selling as quickly as those that were “turnkey”.

“People should think about doing the work themselves before taking their property to market,” Mr Caine said.

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