Our legal minds rate the current market

Buying or selling a property is impossible without the assistance of a conveyancer, and we’re fortunate to be able to call on Jamie Brauer of Conveyancing Connection.

I managed to snag five minutes in Jamie’s busy calendar to dig a little deeper into the current property market from his perspective, and it’s eye-opening content. 

Jamie and his Brisbane-based Conveyancing Connection team manage more than 3,500 matters a year, with over 99 per cent of them settling via PEXA under the electronic mandate.

Around 665,000 matters setted nationally last year, which is approximately 18 per cent below the previous financial year (817,000) but 11 per cent higher than the last pre-Covid financial year of 2020 (595,000). 

The June 2022 and 2023 figures are almost identical, indicating a confidence in the market. 

Jamie’s greatest roadblocks currently are the finance applications and approvals, and building and pest inspection negotiations. 

Buyers are asking for longer finance conditions and are being more aggressive in negotiating the building and pest price reductions. Effectively, what conveyancers are seeing is buyers doing their utmost to minimise ultimate purchase prices.

The focus for both buyers and sellers is risk, and how to best reduce it. Buyers are wanting to know all they can about a property, while sellers want as few conditions as possible. 

The risk assessments for each party are similar, but WHERE the risk lies varies;

• Buyers want knowledge of the property for what may go wrong in the future so they can make their offer
• Sellers want certainty the buyer will not terminate, sending them back on the market

This risk assessment reflects in the negotiations Jamie and his team are seeing. 

In recent years, buyers were prepared to take risks as they saw values climbing and could absorb some loss for works. 

Now prices are generally stable, broadly speaking, buyers are negotiating harder to ensure they can afford those rectification works. 

Jamie’s experiencing great success in pre-sale building and pest reports, which sellers can acquire, as it allows a more comprehensive initial negotiation. It also removes the building and pest clause, which is one less stress point in the contract.

I hope you enjoy the read.

Matt Lancashire