Question: What is happening in today’s market?
Jordan: As of today, I believe supply is currently down with only 116 properties listed for sale and 38 of those properties already placed under offer. This is a typical trend for the Karratha marketplace as we head into the festive month of 2019 and more sellers decide to push their marketing campaign to early 2020.
I do feel though that properties on the market and selling in December will have an opportunity to secure a better price due to the low supply and level of competition from buyers wanting to secure a home before the end of 2019.
Question: Is there any project news out of November?
Jordan: The Pilbara Development Commission shared on their LinkedIn page that stage 3 of the Karratha to Tom Price corridor is set to be complete in 2020. My understanding is that the Australian government has brought forward funding of around $156 million to as early as 2020 for the construction of stage 4.
This is a massive step from the proposed original plan to fund the project in 2023 and I think is going to be fantastic not only for drive-in-drive-out (DIDO) work out of the Karratha area, but the accessibility to Karajini National Park will open up a great tourism opportunity for the Pilbara.
Question: What can you tell us about the general activity in your field?
Jordan: Great question, to provide an insight we recently hosted an open home in Nickol and we’re fortunate enough to meet 27 buyers at the home open following that, 4 of the attendees registered as bidders for our forthcoming auction. For further context, that was that property’s first open home, we received an additional 15 online inquiries and that does not include the number of people calling our office or texting through their interest.
Question: Is there any advice you can provide to buyers right now?
Jordan: My suggestion would be to ensure you have all your ducks in a row and be in a position that when you find that home you love, you can act on it. There is every chance that the following week the sellers would have sold to someone else. I know that when the market was the contrary to what we are experiencing now, buyers would walk through 5 or 6 homes before seeing their broker because there was minimal urgency. Nowadays, they simply do not have that luxury.
Question: As market conditions change, what have you, as a sales agent revised or made adjustments to suit?
Jordan: Something we have been working on is focusing our attention on servicing and nurturing buyers. This allows us to offer an off-market platform to not only buyers but sellers too and allow us to visually show sellers the number of active buyers we are currently working with or have met. Often sellers are waiting on the market to continue to recover, but by being able to quote the property to 10-15 people off market through a range of methods (phone calls, SMS & email) and soft launch the property, this can provide a genuine opportunity to secure a sale without going all the way to market.