Housing market springing back

Vanessa and Tristan Young recently sold their Forest Lake home and are moving to Ipswich.

WITH spring in the air, Ipswich and south-west Brisbane real estate agents are gearing up for what is traditionally their busiest season.

While most agents The Satellite spoke to agreed the winter months were generally slower, they believed it had been a slower year this year due to the global financial crisis and the recent election.

LJ Hooker Goodna principal director, Michael Rossiter, said they had already started their Spring Fest marketing campaign, and were gearing up for a busy spring.

“Spring is in the air, and there is a confidence back, winter is gone and so is the doom and gloom of it,” he said.

“The end of the financial year is over and people are starting to talk about where they want to be in the next two to five years.

“The amount of stock on the market at the moment is quite low compared with our enquiries.

“But the enquiry (level) is good, these are people ready to buy today, not in a few weeks or months.”

Mr Rossiter said LJ Hooker Goodna had had the highest auction clearance rate in the Goodna/Ipswich region that he could remember.

“The amount of product on the market has either been there for a long time, or not marketed correctly,” he said.

Aaron Booth of LJ Hooker Forest Lake agreed spring was busier, saying as the weather heated up people started to venture out from their houses.

“We've had a pretty good year so far, we've had plenty of buyers,” he said.

“But the market is what it is and there are numerous different reasons why it's been a bit slower including the election, economy and the uncertainty of the mining tax.

“These have all been holding people back.

“There's plenty of buyers out there, but properties have to be positioned to create interest.”

Breeze Realty principal, Robert Harding, said real estate agents would be foolish to deny it had been a slow year.

“It's been a national situation,” he said.

“Listings are quite strong, it's the buyers who seem reluctant to do much at the moment.

“Historically winter slows things down somewhat, but now the weather is warming up and we're hoping it will pick up.

“The election and the global financial situation make people nervous about committing themselves.

“But having said all that, it's a buyers market, and there's plenty of houses out there.”