Buyers’ extreme tactics as homes fetch $600k more in just a year
Extreme tactics, fierce competition and prices skyrocketing by $600,000 in just a year - welcome to southeast Queensland’s property boom madness.
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Homehunters have become so disillusioned with Queensland’s property market they are going to extreme lengths, such as letterbox drops and doorknocking, to find owners willing to sell.
With listings at record lows and money cheaper than ever, competition is fierce and buyers are throwing hundreds of thousands of dollars more at sellers in a desperate bid not to miss out.
Just this week, a luxury home in the inner Brisbane suburb of Paddington sold for $200,000 more than it fetched only a year earlier — and not a thing had been done to improve it in that time.
McGrath Estate Agents selling agent Ben Cannon recently sold a contemporary five-bedroom home in Coorparoo for $600,000 more than it sold for only 12 months earlier.
The property at 12 Mars Street attracted 12 registered bidders at auction before selling under the hammer for $2.52 million.
“The property was sold by auction, but every buyer was really using the purchase price from 12 months prior as a guide,” Mr Cannon said.
“The home had only had very minor cosmetic improvements and was basically the same home, just 12 months older.”
In the small suburb of Petrie Terrace, an architecturally-designed, three-bedroom house on a tiny 177 sqm block just sold for $1.45 million, which equates to about $8200/sqm.
The property last sold for nearly a third of that price five years ago — albeit when there was a rundown cottage on the site.
Similarly, local agents are reporting sales well above auction reserve prices and asking prices.
Matthew Hackett of Place Estate Agents recently marketed a property at 34 Shakespeare Street in Bulimba that sold at auction for more than $400,000 above the $1.3 million reserve.
Young professionals Victoria Harrison and Alex Tynan will soon start doorknocking homes in inner Brisbane suburbs, while Hamish and Brittany have targeted houses on the Gold Coast.
Ms Harrison said their decision to take a left-field approach find a house comes after 10 months of fruitlessly attending open homes and auctions across Brisbane.
Each week they have seen gatherings at open homes and auctions swell beyond belief and it’s got to the point where they need to change tack and take-hold of their investment future.
They rue not being more aggressive when they first started out to purchase a property, having now been outbid at three auctions while one offer failed to get over the line, she said.
“Since we started out, the market has gone crazy,” Ms Harrison told The Courier-Mail.
“We’ve been looking for almost 10 months and have come close but haven’t been able to seal the deal.
“It’s got to the point of desperation.”
The couple’s game plan is to door knock across several Brisbane leafy inner-suburbs between Hamilton and Clayfield.
However, it will be far from a scattergun, or an any-house-will-do, approach.
Ms Harrison said they have done their homework.
They have scoured the neighbourhood and cherrypicked houses they would like to buy and will only approach those particular owners.
“We’re not going to knock on everyone’s house. We’ve noted down the houses we’d like to target,” she said.
“If we see a house that really has potential, we are more inclined to knock on their door and leave a business card rather than leaving a letter.”
She said she had not lost faith in real estate agents but believed they would have a better chance of securing a house by using an alternative approach.
“It’s got to the point where we have to do it ourselves,” the owner of The Exposure Co. said.
“We’ve seen too many houses selling before they have come on the market, so we are trying to reach out to those people who may be keen to sell.”
Their decision to doorknock comes as Hamish and Brittany dropped off letters across Southport earlier this month. They declined to be interviewed.
Their letter, to ‘The Home Owner”, said they were “looking to purchase a family home in the area” and that they had no seen many homes for sale in the area.
“If you would consider selling your home (off-market – to save on real estate commissions etc) please keep us in mind,” the wrote.
“We would be willing to pay a great market price and flexible with terms.”
Buyer’s agent Jamie Charman sympathises with anyone trying to secure a property within 10km of the CBD.
The principal of Charman Property Co said he has a growing list of clients wanting a house in the same catchment where demand for property was extremely high.
He said the Catch-22, was that even if people broadened their search range beyond 10km they could still run into a supply shortage because there’s a higher demand where houses are more affordable.
“A lot of young professionals and couples want to buy within that 10km zone of the CBD and it’s very tough,” Mr Charman said.
“They potentially may have more luck if they look slightly further out but the issue, is a lot of people are already looking there because there is a supply shortage.”
It’s the lack of stock that has driven buyers to despair and choosing their own purchasing path, REIQ CEO Antonia Mercorella said.
She said letterbox drops and doorknocking campaigns were usually the domain of real estate agents.
“There’s simply not enough stock available on the market at the moment,” she said.
“As a result, buyers will exhaust every option available to them in order to find that perfect property even if it means knocking on doors.”
SHOW ME THE MONEY
Property Previous sale price Previous sale date Current sale price
192 Baroona Rd, Paddington $2.35m 2019 $2.55m
118 Hawken Dr, St Lucia $3.5m 2019 $900,000
12 Mars St, Coorparoo $1.95m 2019 $2.52m
27 Bellanboe Circuit, Pelican Waters $1.47m 2019 $1.646m
100 Princess St, Petrie Terrace $500,000 2016 $1.45m
48 The Passage, Pelican Waters $1.3m 2015 $1.65m
25 Evelyn St, Grange $1.2m 2015 $1.71m
40 McPherson Rd, Sinnamon Park $530,000 2014 $745,000
63 Park St, Kelvin Grove $250,000 2001 $1.078m
(Source: CoreLogic, Ray White, McGrath Estate Agents, Place Estate Agents)
Originally published as Buyers’ extreme tactics as homes fetch $600k more in just a year
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