Below are 4 reasons why you should be looking for a new place to call home this holiday season:
1. Holiday Deadline
Entering the holiday period, sellers are itching for a sale in order to get that peace of mind that everything is settled going into the New Year. Don’t underestimate the level of desperation some household owners are experiencing at this time, and take the opportunity to make it work for you. Once you have finalised a property to buy, it is advisable to get a Pre-Purchase Building Inspection to have a thorough inspection of the building and its immediate surroundings.
2. Low Interest Rates
Interest rates are changed based on the cash rate. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) determines the rate for which the central bank charges the Big Four Banks (or any other commercial bank) to borrow money. When the cash rate is lifted, it costs the commercial banks more to attain funds, and to combat this the banks will charge consumers more to borrow by increasing their own interest rates.
The RBA decided to hold the interest rates at 1.5% this month (December, 2017). This historically low-interest rate range has been held consistently for 16 months straight now. Having interest rates unchanged for such a long period infers that it’s only amount of time before the rates are risen to offset the negative effects of consistently low-interest rates, such as the unattractiveness of savings for consumers.
Right now is one of the best times to shop around for and lock in the lowest interest rate you can find. Once identified, you can lock in this lower than usual interest rate to secure this long-term benefit for your property purchase.
3. Reduced Competition
The basic economic principle of supply and demand is at play during the holiday season, where you have an influx of properties (supply) waiting to be sold for the sellers’ New Year deadlines and only a limited amount of consumers (demand) willing to purchase these properties at such a busy time of the year. This situation foresees a price reduction in the property market, presenting a potential holiday bargain for yourself.
4. Listing Dates
Most properties that are still up for sale during the holiday season are remnants from the spring selling season. Homeowners and especially real estate agents are keen to have the property wrapped up before the new year brings in a new set of property offerings and higher competition.
Knowing a property’s listing date will give you the heads up on how long the current listing has been up for, whether that be for 3 months, 6 months, or a year, or whether it has been re-listed several times before. The Information regarding your researched property will give the offeree higher purchasing power and leverage capabilities with the owner being more likely to accept a counteroffer on the basis of being listed for an extended period and more eager to sell as soon as possible.
There are dedicated sites to check existing and past listings of properties, for example, the Old Real Estate Listings. After learning about the property listing dates, a thorough Building Inspection would be a wise move especially if a property has been listed on the market for a long time.
By empowering yourself with these 4 steps, you can gain more bargaining power to face the property market this holiday season. It is also important to safeguard your potential property, as it remains one of the biggest spending decisions an individual can make. Having a Property Inspection before you decide to purchase will save you money, time and energy from a potentially nightmarish situation in the future.
