We share market evidence and our very own experience in selling in the current market to show whether January 2019 really is a bad time to sell a house. You will be surprised at the answer!

For a long time the December/January holiday season has been labelled the worst time to sell a house. But based on our very practical experience of selling in the current market, aka right now and in the last few weeks, we say no it isn’t. Go ahead and list!

Let me explain why…

Based on previous years, the busiest months for real estate agents and sellers have been September – November with buyers aiming to move in by Christmas or early January to help settle the children into school for the new year. However this year we have not found this to be the case. Whilst sales figures have been moderate, it hasn’t been the usual ‘silly season’ that we normally experience across the board.

Why?

A key reason is that the Brisbane market has experienced a flow on effect from the Sydney and Melbourne downturn in property sales, with fewer buyers than last year’s statistics. This means there was no outstanding ‘busy season’ as such. Meaning there hasn’t necessarily been a ‘better’ or ‘best’ time to sell a house and has therefore been quite consistent.

Banks are also tightening their lending guidelines which in turn effects sales. This applies to both interest only loans as well as servicing criteria. Hence this has resulted in less active investors in the market with a fall of investor loans of over 30% since the peak in early 2015. Investors are a key component in the residential sales selling chain as they often purchase in the lower end of the market, allowing sellers to repurchase in a higher price range.

So what’s the good news?

The good news is that because we didn’t have an above average selling season over the past few months, we are not seeing a slump in buying activity coming into December and predict it will continue over January.

For what reason?

Previous evidence has shown that many interstate and international visitors traveling to the area over the holiday break, are in fact genuinely looking to move to or invest in the area. External buyers are using this holiday period to concentrate their efforts on finding the perfect property and for a relatively quick sale. So much so that during this time we are quite often only contacted by serious buyers!

The benefits of listing your home for sale in January are threefold.

• Whilst you may not get flooded with offers, your chances of attracting only serious buyers is much higher.
• You haven’t missed the busy selling period as it didn’t quite happen earlier on as you may have expected.
• People are still buying and are not scared to do so over the holiday break.

So if you’re wanting to sell, only want to deal with serious buyers, and are willing to do so over the holiday period, give us a call now.

While our office is closed during the public holiday period from 21^st December to 2^nd January, we DO handle all inquiries seriously at any time of the year. You will however need to book in your appraisal now so that we can fit you in first thing when we get back, or sneak you in before we close.

Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any further questions! We are here to help.

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