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As competition continues to ramp up across the country, first home buyers have increasingly turned to buyer's agents and proptech to stay ahead in today’s red-hot markets.
Since its debut on 1 October, the expanded First Home Guarantee has driven a surge in demand, with many turning to buyer agents and proptech to gain an edge in increasingly hot markets.
According to PropApp, a platform connecting buyers and sellers with agents, first home buyer demand has nearly doubled over the past two months, now accounting for 65 per cent of the app's total activity, almost twice the historical average.
PropApp co-founder Joel Wermut said that as property markets nationwide remain in high demand, first-time buyers have increasingly been turning to proptech and buyer’s agents to secure a property.
“With prices rising so fast and with so many new buyers active in markets big and small, they really need to think outside the box to have any chance of success,” Wermut said.
“Whether that’s circumventing the system by working with buyers’ agents who have access to off-market properties or leveraging technology to get a jump on the competition, they are increasingly prepared to adopt non-traditional methods.”
Similarly, PropApp co-founder Zac Burd said that, alongside motivation from the new government scheme, many buyers had already been frustrated by months of unsuccessful searches for a home or investment property.
“Some buyers have been searching for three to six months – so, well before the expanded guarantee was even announced – and never getting anywhere,” Burd said.
“They’re simply fed up with continually missing out on opportunities.”
According to CBRE’s Residential Valuer Insights Q4 2025, first-time owners drove the highest activity over the quarter, with 71 per cent of valuers reporting them as active, followed by local investors at 58 per cent and upgraders at 52 per cent.
The report also showed that demand for entry-level properties had been rising, following the surge in first-time buyers.
As competition rises, Burd said buyers have also been feeling defeated by the resulting increase in property prices.
“They are also watching their deposits deplete as prices rise and they are forking out money for building and pest inspections on properties that they miss out on because other buyers have deeper pockets than they do.”
Cotality’s latest national Home Value Index showed that nationwide property prices rose by 1.0 per cent in November, a 7.5 per cent annual increase to a median dwelling price of $888,941.
Brisbane couple Aaron and Niki Vinnell spent three months house-hunting, but rising competition meant many properties were snapped up before they even reached the first open home, as a surge of buyers entered the market ahead of 1 October.
“The market is extremely competitive at the moment, and as soon as houses were listed online, they would be receiving offers or going under contract,” the couple said.
“Also, agents would ask us to put offers in on houses that were well out of our budget just to show the seller there was interest – not to mention some of the antics that went on at auctions.”
After struggling to find suitable homes within their budget, the couple finally signed a contract on a property in Kippa-Ring, Redcliffe, in October with the help of a local buyer’s agent, as high prices and buyers going unconditional had made the search exhausting.
“It was so stressful, all while trying to sell our first house, work full time and look after a family,” the couple concluded.
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