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Despite an economic downturn brought about by the COVID-19 outbreak, Aussie seller satisfaction continues to increase nationwide – an indication of a resilient property market, according to a national research by RateMyAgent.
RateMyAgent’s half-yearly Price Expectation Report (January-June 2020) asked 33,000 successful vendors if the sale price achieved was above, below or in line with their expectations. Results showed an increase in satisfaction year-on-year, with overall net happiness up 12 per cent from June 2019 (27 per cent) to June 2020 (39 per cent).
During the first half of the year, vendor price satisfaction slumped 4 per cent in March, which was followed by a sharp drop of 8 per cent in April, with only 35 per cent of Australian sellers reporting an above-expectation sale price during the month. However, when compared to the same period year-on-year (April 2019), April 2020 still reported an 8 per cent increase.
According to RateMyAgent CEO and co-founder Mark Armstrong: “April was a particularly tough month for vendors. There wasn’t a single state in Australia that didn’t experience a decline in sale price happiness. This is reflective of the high levels of economic and consumer uncertainty around the business impact and government restrictions associated with managing the COVID-19 pandemic.”
From late-April, the market began to find its feet, with vendor happiness seeing a stabilisation throughout May (35 per cent) and into June (36 per cent).
This stabilisation can be attributed to an unprecedented drop in property supply in April – suddenly, buyers were having to compete for a reduced number of properties on the market, which kept prices stable and naturally vendor sale price satisfaction improved slightly.
“As expected, what we’ve seen since May is the stabilisation of market confidence – after the initial shock in March and April wore off, consumer optimism is on the way back up as seen in our recent Price Expectation Report,” Mr Armstrong highlighted.
“The return of consumer confidence is largely attributed to the Australian [government’s] stimulus packages. HomeBuilder, JobKeeper and JobSeeker have provided a safety net to Australians and added a level of security to what would be an otherwise quite volatile economic period.”
Improvements were led by strong satisfaction levels in the ACT, where net vendor happiness jumped from 44 per cent in April to 57 per cent in June.
Meanwhile, Tasmania, NSW and Victoria saw the sharpest state-based drops in April, dropping 20 per cent, 12 per cent and 9 per cent, respectively.
All states have since bounced back and continue to increase due to buyer competition and widespread supply shortages.
Looking to the next six months of 2020, Mr Armstrong said that Australian sellers and buyers can anticipate stable levels of vendor happiness if stock levels remain low. However, a potential increase in supply of property as we enter the spring market may dial down buyer competition and thus see happiness decrease.
Where are sellers happiest?
The stabilisation in happiness is being seen nationwide, but perhaps most significantly across the ACT (47 per cent) overtaking Tasmania (40 per cent) this quarter as Australia’s happiest state/territory.
Following this lead is South Australia (39 per cent), Victoria (38 per cent) and NSW (34 per cent), and rounding out the bottom of the ladder is Queensland (34 per cent) and Western Australia (26 per cent).
“The ACT property market has proven incredibly stable. Buyers in the area aren’t putting off any plans to buy and vendors aren’t hesitating to get on the market. Job growth and stable [government] employment [have] brought strong competition to the local market, meaning vendors are achieving great prices on their property sales,” Mr Armstrong said.
Across Australia’s regions, meanwhile, Canberra emerged as the happiest state – reaffirming strong vendor satisfaction in Australia’s capital city.
This positive trend in seller satisfaction has seen Canberra (47 per cent) leapfrog Southern Melbourne (36 per cent), previously the happiest region in Australia in December 2020.
In the top 20 happiest places nationally, Victoria took out the most regions (eight), followed by NSW (seven) and Tasmania (two). Victoria also holds six of the top 10 regions nationally.
The report went on to find net happiness levels over the past 12 months have improved across all states except Tasmania, which has reported satisfaction levels well above average for the past 12 consecutive months and naturally had no growth during the economic downturn.
Australia’s top 10 happiest areas - April to June 2020
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