With the Corona Virus now well and truly upon us some people may feel there is cause for concern and worry about the state of the property market.
Since we only came out of a flat market less than 12 months ago this may have a feeling of deja vu.
What does it mean for the average buyer and seller, honestly probably not a lot.
The usual people are already predicting doom and gloom and not just in the media but in all our social circles, we know who they are, usually the ones who don’t own property but wish they bought about 5 years ago instead of going on another overseas holiday or buying a new car.
So the big question is will the sky fall in this time, short answer is no.
As mentioned previously the banks are playing ball and helping people who may have affordability issues by offering to defer payments or lower them for a period of time. The banks do not want to kick people out or repossess homes, they are trying to be good corporate citizens.
What a lot of the doomsayers seem to forget is not everyone lives week to week or pay cheque to pay cheque and can afford to not sell until the market improves. Why do they always seemingly take this position, well it suits their narrative.
What I can’t foresee is a total routing of the market as people just won’t sell.
It always seems to be a concept that escapes the media and other doom and gloomers is that not every person is under duress when they put their property on the market a lot of people want to upgrade or have a change of lifestyle or are purely disposing of an asset in their portfolio but that doesn’t suit their agenda.
What I foresee occurring is more of what we saw prior to the last Federal Election which was a complete lack of good quality stock but more pent up buyers so when something good does come to market there will be very strong competition for it.
Over the coming weeks I believe we will see new ways of buying property emerge, such as online auctions.
Remember the media aren’t there to give you good advice they are there to sell their papers.
