Coronavirus: Hopes up that easing of restrictions brings the sellers back

An easing of restrictions on the property market may offer the temporary boost in confidence needed to reinvigorate buyers and sellers.

Jade Lawton and James Brick with daughter Indiana, 5, and dog Ralph at their home in Chadstone. Picture: Aaron Francis

An easing of restrictions on the property market may offer the temporary boost in confidence needed to reinvigorate buyers and sellers, but it may be short-lived as the true economic impact of the corona­virus becomes more clear.

It will be the first time in almost two months that the residential selling market has resembled normalit­y, as restrictions in all states begin to be wound back.

Open homes are back on in all states from this weekend with ­social distancing measures in place, while auctions are allowed everywhere bar Western Australia, as most states follow the lead of NSW and the Northern Territory, which resumed them last weekend.

Ray White managing director Dan White said sellers had been the missing ingredient in the market­place, with buyer numbers remaining strong despite rising unemployment and economic uncertaint­y.

“Our hope is that when vendors will see the market operating in a more normal and traditional way, they will then decide that with all these things in play — low rates, government stimulus, buyers in place — they’ll come to market,” Mr White said.

“The way demand is at the momen­t, we’d have to have an enormous amount of supply in the market for prices to fall from where we were last year.”

Scott Morrison’s announcement of a three-stage return from lockdown has led to a bump in new listings, with property portal Realestate.com.au reporting a 17.7 per cent increase in listings across all capital cities from Saturday to Thursday last week compared with the same period over the previous week. The site’s executive manager of economic research, Cameron Kusher, said the numbers showed confidence was returning.

“It is still very early days in the reopening of the Australian economy and new listings remain lower through May 2020 than they were a year ago. However, it appears that vendor confidence is showing early signs of returning as on-site auctions and open for inspections are once again being allowed,” Mr Kusher said.

“While there is a long way to go to see new listings return to their levels prior to COVID-19, these early signs indicate that confid­ence may slowly be starting to retur­n to the property market.”

But as the industry faces a new normal, chief economist at My Housing Market Andrew Wilson says confidence will be tested later in the year as official data reflecting today’s economic position is released, including unemployment and GDP figures.

“There is certainly a journey ahead; it is going to get harder,” Dr Wilson said.

“I think we have been in a sort of twilight zone in the property market­ over the past month or two, with clearance rates still looking good and buyers transacting. It hasn’t looked too bad. But we haven’t had to confront the significant bad-news stories yet.”

Just 125 auctions are scheduled around the country on Saturday according to SQM Research, includin­g the family home of Jade Lawton and James Brick, both 33, in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.

Despite the easing, they have decided to commit to an online auction on the advice of their agent, Bill Gianidis of Ray White Oakleigh.

“We are optimistic we will sell, although we understand we need to keep an open mind during this pandemic,” Ms Lawton said.

“We kept going ahead because we saw properties in our area were selling. So if people think properties are still selling at competitive prices, then absolutely people will feel more confident.”