Local Market Update

A Spring Back in Our Step!

After a sluggish start to the month for both listings and sales, spring finally sprung at Ray White Cranbourne with a flurry of activity across the business and region as a whole in late October, closing with a satisfactory 30 sales for the month.

Although our team was out in force and conducted high levels of appraisals, the unseasonably wet spring conditions proved challenging to many prospective vendors who struggled to finalise preparations to their properties until very late in the month.

Although listing numbers did rally to exceed a property a day, the overall number of listings for established homes in well-known parts of Cranbourne remained low.  This was in stark contrast to the new home market, which was flooded with several new estates coming online.

In October we introduced our “price range marketing policy” to replace our existing policy of marketing properties at a “fixed price”.  The change was well received by both vendors and buyers as the policy states that we will “sell within the range, unless a multi-offer situation pushes it above the range”.  We believe this new policy provides greater transparency for everyone involved.  Some buyers will still pursue offers below the marketed range, but this just prolongs the negotiations and will often see them missing out on their desired property.

Our rental department had another consistent month with close to a letting per day.  Our “Rent Event”, held on October 18 and within the school holiday period, generated strong interest with every available property open for inspection.  The “Event” attracted several strong applications, with the trend continuing towards newer properties with tenants willing to pay a premium to get them.

Real estate was under the media spotlight throughout October, with many commentators speculating on how interest rates would impact demand and values.  The “Super Saturday” auction weekend also received strong coverage across both metropolitan and suburban press in the closing days.  It was a good litmus test of the auction market, with approximately 1,200 properties up for auction in one weekend.  Clearance rates were constant at around 66 percent.

With another decrease in interest rates forecast between now and Christmas, we anticipate fresh buyers entering the market in larger numbers and a very busy November.

Sales team Ringeri, was the stand out for the month with a PB in combined listing and sales numbers.  Agent, Denis Hennequin, also finished at the top of our sales board for the month and Kate Rushton had a very busy and productive month. Congratulations to all of these outstanding agents.

The traditional increase in activity for the spring market, although a little delayed, definitely arrived in late October, and the team now has a spring in its step attending to the needs of clients in the lead up to Christmas.

Until next month,

Cheers Mark
Mark Guthrie – CEO Ray White Cranbourne
0404 001 347