WHY SELL NOW ?
If anyone was to ask you if now was the best time to sell your property , it would be difficult to know exactly . August saw the third recurring 0.5 per cent increase in the official cash rate , moving it up to 1.85 per cent . With the RBA still indicating the target cash rate at 2.5 per cent , the market can still expect a few more months of uncertainty ahead .
Interest rates have had an impact on property prices and change tends to lead to inactivity for many market sectors . However , with any marketplace comes opportunities for both buyers and sellers and there are many benefits to transacting in the current market . Selling at the peak of the market is always the goal , as is buying at the bottom . But the only guarantee to timing the market is in hindsight . Many people who sold in August 2021 , would have made more money if they ’ d sold in October 2021 . Equally those selling in July 2022 might have made more six months earlier in January 2022 . When a market is on the rise , time is your ally . Alternatively , when prices are falling , time is quite literally costing you money .
Looking back historically , market dips are always faster than the rise . Price drops typically only last for around a six to 12 month period before they start to stabilise . The question then becomes : how long does it take to recover and then improve ? There ’ s still a very active marketplace , but buyers simply have less money to spend . Waiting for interest rates to hit their peak will continue to reduce the level of money available in the marketplace and will no doubt continue to challenge prices available . When talking with prospective sellers , their primary consideration comes down to what is more important when making their decision : time or money ? When deciding ‘ why sell now ?’ there must be an acceptance that the peak of the market has passed . But what ’ s the underlying motivation for coming to market and what ’ s the cost of ‘ waiting ’?
In a market that ’ s reduced , buying and selling in the same market ( cross-selling ) has seen property prices equally impacted . You may sell for less , but you can also buy for less . In cases of upsizing , the impact of a 10 per cent decline on a $ 600,000 property is only $ 60,000 ; but on a $ 1 million property it ’ s $ 100,000 - a $ 40,000 saving . The alternate question also becomes for those families looking to move forward to the next stage of their lives , whatever that may be , what ’ s the real impact on ‘ waiting ’ for the peak again , in which case the risk of selling ‘ too early ’ then again becomes equally as real . Timing the market has always been an impossible task but time in the market is absolutely crucial . The old adage , “ it ’ s not about timing the market , but about time in the market ,” has been proven true over the years for property as well as many other asset classes .
Tim Snell Group Head of Performance Ray White Group
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