How homeowners are making the most of their equity

We are starting to see an influx of enquiry from many of our buyers’ agency clients that we have helped secure a home or investment property over the past few years.

Whether we assisted them with purchasing a new home in the Hills District of Sydney or perhaps a strategically selected investment property in the Moreton Bay region of Southeast Queensland, they have all experienced the same result – and that is excellent capital growth.

Some of our clients have seen the equity in their properties soar over the past five years, which means they are in the ideal situation to re-utilise some of those funds to expand their portfolios.

Fair offers

Market conditions are reasonably diverse around the nation at present, with some locations showing much softer metrics than others.

However, there is still an element of vendors not wanting to accept the prices that most buyers are prepared to pay.

That said, we are successfully purchasing properties for our clients because we are responsive to the vendor’s needs as well as being realistic with our offers.

Alas, when markets do start to experience slower conditions, we always see a proportion of buyers who think that a “bust” is under way and behave accordingly.

What I mean by that is some buyers are throwing embarrassingly low offers at the agent, because in their eyes all they see is a shack, versus the seller’s castle perspective.

Of course, low-ball offers are not appropriate – in any market conditions in my opinion – because all they achieve is an offended seller and an angry sales agent, who may never give that buyer the time of day again, which could be a major problem if they trying to purchase in a specific location where that agent has the market stitched up.

Price discounts

While there is certainly more scope for negotiation on price at the moment compared to last year, we always ensure that we make a sound offer, including specific terms and conditions that might be appealing to the vendor as well.

Over recent weeks, we have managed to secure a number of properties in Sydney and Brisbane at prices that just wouldn’t have been possible last year.

In Brisbane, we bought a house in a middle-ring suburb for about 10 per cent below what its price would have been in 2021.

Likewise, in Sydney, we are purchasing properties for tens of thousands of dollars less than what we would have had to pay last year.

Of course, all of these purchases follow a set of criteria, including budget, that has been pre-determined with our clients, with the final sale price generally being well below the maximum price point because of the current market conditions.

Many of our former clients have seen the equity in their property or portfolio increase by hundreds of thousands of dollars.

This means they are well-placed to extract a 20 per cent deposit to upgrade or to buy an investment property with strong capital growth potential and solid yields – and many are deciding to do just that because they recognise the opportunities that exist at present.