As government imposed restrictions around the spread of COVID-19 are eased around Australia, Oriel Morrison and Chris Gray take a look at the numbers and speak with industry experts to cut through the noise about what lies ahead for the property sector in the first of our special Property Post COVID-19 series. 

Having recently released slightly better than expected figures for May, Founder of SQM Research, Louis Christopher says the “outlook is a little more promising than where we were 30 days ago” and “while the market has some clouds there, it is not one that’s absolutely collapsing.”

Speaking on the future for property and the Australian economy in general, Christopher says “much is going to be dependent upon when we see the lifting of the international border.”  And noting Australia’s historic reliance on migration to drive population growth, “it’s very unlikely we’re going to see any meaningful rises in dwelling prices while we have the closure of the international border and of course the large rises in unemployment.”

Moving onto innovation and technology advancement through the COVID-19 pandemic, Oriel turns the tables on her co-host of Property Edge, Ben Gaze who is Managing Director at digital solutions provider Netpoint Group in his spare time. 

Driven by necessity and as a result of government mandated social distancing requirements, agents have seemingly adapted overnight to online solutions to real world problems. 

Gaze believes the industry would have adopted the various tools available to them eventually but the advent of COVID-19 had definitely accelerated the pace of uptake. “The willingness of software companies to integrate with each other in order to streamline peoples processes” has been the most exciting aspect of this eventful period.

With such rapid change taking place over the last 3 months, Gaze sees efficiencies in streamlining leading to agents being more aware of their database and buyers using integrated online research tools to their advantage over the next 6-12 months.

And finally tonight, Chris speaks with Peter Hanscomb, CEO, Director and Shareholder at Belle Property who tells us that he sees the market “strengthening, we’re seeing increased buyer demand” with “genuine quick transactions happening” and sales cycles “shortened to around 14 days on good property.”

“I think there’s a lot more pessimism about the property market than I think is deserved. I think it’s all connected to employment, at the end of the day. It’s not interest rates. It’s confidence and employment are the two biggest drivers right now.”

“Small business across Australia has been absolutely hammered and I think that that will have an impact but I think it’s coming back quicker than you think. And I think the confidence of people coming into the marketplace I think is strengthening, not plateauing at this point.”