BUYING PROPERTY
IS THIS THE WORST OR BEST TIME TO BE BUYING?
B Y C H R I S G R A Y, C E O, YO U R E M P I R E
If one of your goals in life is to earn more than the average salary (over $100k) and retire earlier than the average person (55), then by definition, you probably need to do the opposite to what the rest of the population does. When it comes to property, being
an ‘expert’ and they were all trying
5-10% increases which actually
a contrarian means buying when
to ‘bottom’ the market.
resulted in 15–25% depending on
everyone else is sitting on the fence. It makes basic sense – if you’re buying when no one else is buying, you’re bound to have more choice and more likely to buy at a better price than buying at auction, in a boom, when competition is at a peak. However, doing the opposite to everyone else is very hard from an emotional perspective especially when your friends, family and colleagues question what you’re doing when no one else is doing it. In 2016 / 2017 the market was rising. Soon after it started, many people thought it was rising too quickly, it wasn’t sustainable and so best not to buy as it was bound to crash. The market peaked at the end of 2017 and then it did start to drop off like it does after every peak.
At the same time, we were going through a credit crunch and the Royal Banking Commission and so for some of those that did want to buy or did predict the bottom of
the market early saying there was no way this growth was sustainable and it was too risky to buy. The market did peak at the end of
mortgage as the banks had changed
2021 and we woke up in 2022 with
all of their serviceability calculators.
less confidence. The talk of interest
In reality, the market didn’t really crash, in some places it dipped 10% in 2018 but bounced back to the
rates rising has put off many buyers and many buyers love sitting on the fence when an election looms.
same level by 2019. If you weren’t a
So looking back over the last
forced seller, you would never have
6 years, there was only a period of
noticed it.
6 months (first half of 2021) when
In Feb 2020 the market was just about to take off again and then Covid hit. We had never seen it before and banks were predicting a 10–20% crash and so no one bought and there were a number of panicked sellers. However by mid year the panic eased and the market
buy now if the market is falling as
did in fact slightly increase.
tomorrow’. Suddenly everyone was
Half way through 2021, many called
the market, they then couldn’t get a
So in 2018 the excuse was ‘why it’s bound the be even cheaper
where you were around the country.
Then the market really kicked in Feb 2021. The banks predicted C21 MARKET PULSE
02
CENTURY 21
everyone was on the same page and agreed it was the right time to buy. That was the only time when you could be confident to buy and tell your friends, family and colleagues and not receive any negative comments or feedback as everyone was in the market together. That also meant you probably paid over the odds at auction as you were competing with
