Queensland real estate: Buyers agent Zoran Solano
Greedy vendors risked losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in a two-speed market where buyers aren’t as hot for high-end homes, an agent has warned.
Sellers in the Brisbane prestige segment were overestimating buyer demand, often rejecting strong auction offers only to sell later for less, while buyers in the $800,000 to $2m range faced fierce competition and rapid price escalation, according to Zoran Solano, of Hot Property Buyers Agency.
Mr Solano noted several recent auctions for homes priced over $3m starting with a vendor bid, then stalling as the sellers aren’t prepared to budge on their reserve.
Hot or not? Demand isn’t as strong for high-end homes
“Then those properties are sitting on the market and often end up selling for significantly less than what the top bid had been at auction,” he said.
“A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush, so, vendors are perhaps being a bit greedy because they believe that the prestige market is as hot as the more affordable segment when it’s not.”
He said the top end of the market, while still experiencing price growth, just didn’t have the same velocity or demand as more affordable properties.
“Of course, with prestige, you never have the same volume of potential buyers in that upper price bracket,” he said.
“But it also seems that sellers are shooting for the stars, when the top of the market doesn’t have the same momentum under way.
Mr Solano said greedy vendors were missing out at auction
“Rather than accepting a price close to their reserve, which often has a significant profit already baked in, they are stubbornly holding their ground and often paying the price for it when the highest offer they receive post-auction is well below what they could have achieved under the hammer.”
It comes amid hot demand for affordable properties following the introduction of the government’s expanded Home Guarantee Scheme in October.
Real Estate Buyers Agents Association of Australia president Melinda Jennison said demand for properties under the low deposit scheme’s $1m cap in Brisbane had already pushed prices up by $50,000 as buyers rushed to get into the market.
Justin Nickerson of Apollo Auctions at a recent charity sale
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Auctioneer Jutin Nickerson, of Apollo Auctions, went further, saying Brisbane had split into a “three-speed market”, where intense competition among first-home buyers for sub-$1m homes had impacted demand for slightly more expensive properties.
Mr Nickerson said homes priced from $1.5m to $2.5m, and therefore ineligible for government schemes, were proving “tougher to move”.
“For properties priced over $3m, there is still enough interest if sellers are commercially minded,” he said.
“But if they are overly optimistic on the state of the market, it’s a real challenge.”
Luxury sellers Madelyn and Paul Clarkson sold their Victoria Point home post-action for $3.2m
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