Andrew Bell’s Market Wrap: How will the 2022 Real Estate Market Compare to 2021?

Issue 03 | Thursday 10 February 2022 | How will the 2022 Real Estate Market Compare to 2021?

Hi, Andrew Bell here as I come up for air after the most hectic January in our company’s history.  If you are anything like the media or industry bodies, you will want to know the results of The Event 2022 as it is a strong barometer of our current real estate market.  So here is a quick summary.

Originally 146 property owners engaged us to sell their properties through The Event 2022.  A record number and largely because people identify the huge benefits that The Event brings to marketing a property.  The Ray White Surfers Paradise Group are the pioneers of The Event which has now been running for 30 years.

Because of COVID, a number of those properties has to be postponed from January.  Tenants who wouldn’t give access because of fears of COVID entering their homes and indeed a number of sellers themselves shared those same concerns.

However, 130 properties proceeded to auction.  The marketing was breathtaking with extensive print media coverage throughout Australia in publications like The Australian, The AFR plus newspapers in NSW and VIC and indeed even in New Zealand.  On the digital platforms sum 23 real estate sites were engaged and on the social media front the greatest ever enquiry was generated.  Our database is the most powerful on the Gold Coast and this platform was also incredibly active.  All up we had well over 700,000 viewings of the properties were recorded throughout late December and January which generated thousands upon thousands of email and telephone enquiries which resulted in over 6,500 physical inspections of the properties which lead to over 720 registered bidders for our two auction dates which resulted in 103 properties sold to date.

On any measure, every previous record was surpassed significantly.  Over $160m in sales through The Event and of course there are other private treaty sales on top of that.

Whilst there was a large component of interstate buying which is most definitely added to the strength of the Gold Coast market, our local buyers were out in force as well.  Yes, that migration from our southern states continues at present we see no end to that. International enquiries have now increased, with particularly strong interest through our New Zealand network. While increasing these enquiries are not yet major contributors to the number of buyers in the market.

There is no question there’s a change in the market at present.  A little more uncertainty with a divisive Federal Election looming and having to be held by mid-May and the well-publicised likely rise in interest rates at some stage this year.  But you know I have personally been through the Gold Coast property cycles on seven occasions.  The depth of our experience in knowing how to work in every stage of the market cycle certainly came to bear.  We understand the concerns of buyers and we can rely on our past experience to share knowledge with them.  It’s evident by the results.  There are auctions held by other real estate companies that got very poor results.  It reminds us just how important experience is when appointing a real estate agent.  Not just experience in the last year to five years but experience through many real estate cycles.

So 2022 will be a different year to 2021.  Different factors driving it and different events to play out.  But all in all, it should be well balanced year.  For those thinking of selling please reach out to us.  We have hundreds and hundreds who missed out on properties in January that are just itching to buy.  They want to buy now, and it might be your property that best suits them.  Opportunities like this don’t surface often.  It was a great honour to lead the national real estate market in January.  It was a great honour to elevate the Gold Coast property market to unprecedented levels and it was a great honour to represent our sellers and to achieve the incredible results that they are enjoying.

There is lots more to share with you in the weeks ahead and I want to thank so many of you that reached out in recent months to thank me for our newsletters and particularly to those who live outside of the Gold Coast and say they rely on the information they provide to keep their knowledge about our market to the highest level.  It’s my great pleasure to share my 40+ years of experience with you and I will always tell you how it is and not put any spin on it.

There is so much negativity floating around especially in the media and social media, I truly hope that you can rise above it and look for all the wonderful things that make living here in Australia a blessing and to rise above that negativity and enjoy every day with our family and friends as life is way too short to spend time in negativity. 

I look forward to being with you in a fortnight’s time.

Warm Regards,

Andrew Bell, OAM
Chief Executive Officer
The Ray White Surfers Paradise Group

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