There are two huge events currently happening in the Brisbane property market, and both of them are having a profound impact on buyers and sellers. The first is the extraordinary heat in the Brisbane market. We have seen a sharp uplift in enquiry and open for inspection attendees. Last week at our monthly auctions at the Calile Hotel, we saw an 80 per cent clearance rate and over 50 bidders who turned up to compete.
This high octane competition is being fuelled by an extreme shortage of available properties on the market and, coupled with the interest rate drop, is pushing buyers to pay more to get their own piece of Brisbane. But slamming up against this strong buyer demand is a new set of paperwork that can only be described as the definition of ironic. Someone in a tower somewhere thought giving buyers a 300 or so page document would give buyers more transparency. I have been writing about this over the last couple of weeks and friends have asked whether I was over exaggerating again. So I snapped a photo of a contract at a house auction on Saturday.
That contract was 20 pages just five weeks ago. It’s the sheer volume of material that sellers have to provide to buyers that is causing the biggest issue. I just think they missed the mark. It takes time, it costs money and buyers aren’t even reading them.