Perry's Property Update May 2012

by Perry Beebe

Hi and welcome to the May edition of Perry's Property Update.

Well, after many months of speculation about interest rates,the beginning of May saw the Reserve Bank slash interest rates by .5%. Before talking about the impact of this announcement let's look at the recent market conditions.

During the last 6 months, the unpredictable pattern of buyer & seller sentiment has seen the local property market have it ups and downs. And this has not been helped by the bad spate of weather we have seen so far this year.

On the upside, one feature of the last 12 months has been the significant number of investors from outside the Illawarra looking for property here. The general belief being there is still the potential of long term growth in this area.

There has been a lot of uncertainty with the ongoing news from Europe and America and in the local economic situation including the high Australian dollar, perceived high interest rates and rising utility costs like electricity. While interest rates declined by half a per cent late last year this did little to change the market sentiment.  All these points have contributed to the property market being flat. Across the Wollongong area houses have seen virtually no increase in the last 12 months while units, townhouses and villas have seen a 1% fall across the whole region.

But back to the good news. The interest rates have been reduced very significantly. So what will this mean to the local property market?

For borrowers there will be significant gains in affordability. This should increase demand across the whole market as more people will be able to afford to buy.

We expect that good sized family homes and renovated or modern apartments will do well as more buyers enter the market.

About Perry Beebe Perry is the Managing Director of All Residential Real Estate. All Residential Real Estate is a boutique agency passionate about providing very high levels of customer service. We believe that property sales and management is about you. It's about how you feel when you sell your property or have a property managed through an agent. At All Residential Real Estate, you have very experienced professionals who take pride in everything they do.   You can also find Perry in Google+