Life as an agent in the Snowy Mountains

Jindabyne locals are used to snow, but once every few years, the mountainside town receives a massive snowfall that stops residents in their tracks.

“A couple of years ago, we had to rush and get our kids home from school because the buses weren’t going to be able to get there,” recalled real estate principal Shannon Fergusson. “It keeps people on their toes.”

Unexpected snow days, transport issues and school closures don’t seem to be warding off the thousands of visitors who inundate the Jindabyne real estate market every winter.

During the snow season, Mr Fergusson reported that “the Jindabyne township just triples in size and it can actually be quite difficult to live there”.

For locals, the winter influx brings mixed feelings: on one hand, the population surge puts extreme pressure on local amenities, like the area’s one supermarket; but on the other hand, the town’s economy relies on tourism.

As the principal of McGrath Real Estate Jindabyne, Mr Fergusson has seen it all. Originally based in the Hunter Valley, the agent relocated to his wife’s hometown of Cooma 20 years ago, and now proudly calls the Snowy Mountains home.

Each winter, cashed-up Sydneysiders flock south to the mountains in search of ski slopes, wildlife and glistening expanses of snow.

“A lot of people bring their kids down each winter for 16 weeks of the season, enrol them in either of the two schools, and they live there for the whole ski season,” said Mr Fergusson.

When COVID-19 hit, this trend turned into an avalanche.

“There was this huge influx of people taking up the idea of changing their location due to being able to work from home,” said Mr Fergusson.

“A lot of those families through COVID were here anyway, and decided to just buy and stay.”

During the height of the pandemic, the Jindabyne property market experienced an astonishing surge, with prices shooting up almost 50 per cent.

“I think Jindabyne would have rated up with one of the highest price jumps in the state,” Mr Fergusson said.

Since then, prices have softened slightly, but the market remains “extremely high and strong”. According to Mr Fergusson, the mountains “offers a lifestyle that not many other places can”.

Even in summer, the mild climate and abundant mountain biking opportunities draw crowds of buyers and renters in search of a better quality of life.

“You just get such beautiful seasons,” said Mr Fergusson. “You rarely get many days above 30 degrees in summer, and you get that cold in winter which is actually quite beautiful when it’s not blowing.”

With so many buyers based in east coast cities, Mr Fergusson and his team have become adept at using digital walkthroughs and virtual tours to facilitate sales.

“We had one only last week where a buyer from Sydney bought a unit off us, site unseen,” Mr Fergusson said. “We can go and do a video walkthrough with just our phone and he was happy with that, bought it, and exchanged contracts within a week or two.”

Social media and top-tier visual marketing is a must in this online-oriented property market. “Buyers will pick based on what they see in the photo, so we use professional photographers and videographers to shoot our holiday properties just the same way we would with our sales properties,” stated Mr Fergusson.

The McGrath Real Estate Jindabyne team also uses an external marketing company to target the areas where their guests come from.

“We utilise social media very heavily,” Mr Fergusson said.

For the agents themselves, life at the foothills of the Snowy Mountains brings rewards that few Australians are lucky enough to experience.

On cold winter days when the snowfall lies thick on the mountains, the agents can often be found skiing on the slopes. In summer, agents are often known to waterski and fish on Lake Jindabyne, potter around local townships and explore homegrown breweries.

“The autumn months are a really beautiful time,” Mr Fergusson said. “You get those 23- or 24-degree days, but then you get the nice cool nights where you can rug up and feel comfortable with all your warm clothes, and sometimes you’ve even got the fire on at night.”

For the principal, Jindabyne might be a tourist honeypot, but it’s also a thriving community that offers year-round happiness.

“There’s a lot of attractions as opposed to some other inland regional towns that attract people here for good,” Mr Fergusson concluded.

To find out more about how agents are operating across Australia and beyond, check out REB’s previous articles in the Life as an Agent series.

We spoke with Michael Barrett on Kangaroo Island, who battles snakes and bushfires in his bid to find his clients the perfect property.

Up in Queensland’s Daintree Rainforest, Mark Whitham has seen his local community flooded out of their homes after the most extreme flood event in written record.

In the underground desert town of Coober Pedy, Warren Andrews must operate across two time zones and 3000 kilometres to sell property across Australia’s red centre.

In Alice Springs, Gail Tuxworth has faced media firestorms and chronic undersupply, but a strong team spirit has pulled her through the hardest times.

Rose Evans sells property on Norfolk Island, a place where residents are few, homes are fewer, and all building supplies must be shipped in by sea.

Over in Hunter Valley wine country, Cain Beckett uses cutting-edge technology to sell centuries-old heritage estates.

Across the water in Fiji, Paula Benn has sold high-end hotels and struggled under economy-shattering border closures.