Demand Our record result for November was clearly driven by our record volume of buyer demand . Across all of our metrics , demand was up .
The initial buyer metric we take into consideration is the number of buyers viewing properties online . Over the past 28 days we have seen over 3.68 million views across our Ray White websites . This is 38 per cent higher than this time last year . This has resulted in over 44,726 enquiries being sent , a volume which is 22 per cent higher than the same period last year .
The demand hasn ’ t stopped at online activity . Across our auctions over the past week we saw an average of 5.2 registered bidders per auction and of these bidders an average of 3.1 were actively bidding at these auctions . These levels are some of the strongest we have seen all year ( refer to Chart 4 ).
The final consideration that we look at when measuring the volume of demand in the market and arguably the most significant is the number of people obtaining pre-approvals for finance . Pre-approvals are a key leading indicator to buyer confidence knowing they have the financial capacity to buy the property . Our partners at Loan Market ( refer to page 20 for more information ) are seeing record numbers of pre-approvals across the country with 39 per cent more than this time last year ( refer to Chart 5 ).
As we continue to see strong numbers across these buyer metrics , we often ask ourselves why . So what factors are contributing to buyer confidence ?
• Interest rates are at record lows . Importantly , the general consensus among economists is that they will remain at these low levels for the foreseeable future .
• Banks and lenders remain very supportive of lending for residential property .
• Record levels of government stimulus continue to support buyer sentiment .
Chart 3 : Online enquiries
This chart compares the number of online enquiries made through Ray White websites over the 2019 and 2020 calendar years . It shows that online enquiries are 22 per cent above levels at the same time last year .
# Online Enquiries / 28 days
# / 28 days
70k 60k 50k 40k 30k 20k 10k
7.0 6.0 5.0 4.0 3.0 2.0 1.0
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan
Chart 4 : Bidding by month
The chart illustrates that the average number of registered bidders per auction has been increasing through 2020 as at 14 December 2020 .
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Avg . Active Bidders per Auction
Chart 5 : Loan pre-approvals
2019 2020
Source : Ray White Online Analytics
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Avg . Reg . Bidders per Auction
Source : Ray White EARS Auction Reporting System
This chart compares the number of loan pre-approvals submitted via Loan Market brokers over the 2019 and 2020 calendar years . It shows higher levels of pre-approvals now compared to 12 months ago .
# Loan Pre-approvals / 28 days
450 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50
Dec
Jan
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan
2019 2020
Source : Loan Market
11