The Chinese are Coming?

I was interested to read this weekends local newspaper and note that is is not only real estate agencies searching to employ bi-lingual staff at present. Tourism and service companies share our quest as we gear up for an expected surge in the Chinese market. There has clearly been an increase in the number of Chinese buyers about seeking to secure good quality homes for their families in Cairns. They must meet certain criteria to buy property in Australia. I have personally not experienced the onset of investors to date.

In just over 2 months, the direct flights from China to Cairns begin. Are we about to experience a reoccurance of the heady days of the early 1990's when the Japanese were flying direct to Cairns resulting in one of the largest boosts to the local economy ever? We remain cautiously optimistic on that one. At least momentum is building, for for what appears to be the beginning of the upturn on the Property Clock.

When do we know it is on the bottom? When sales volume and sales values start going up! Sales volumes are definitely on the rise. Sales values?

We'll have to consult the buyers on that one!

Have a great week, Debbie

Plenty of Action in Cairns – We’re Excited!

What an exciting week it has been! Buyer sentiment has been high and the RBA announcing that the interest rates will remain at 3.5% will really feed that enthusiasm. Good crowds at Open Homes with Buyers remaining confident in their power that they hold “price wise”.

I get to speak with valuers, solicitors, building & pest inspectors every day. Most are reporting a marked increase in business, though it remains patchy with quiet spells now and then.

Its also surprising how many people searching for property come from the south. Many on the hunt for a good buy, many have sold or are selling in Adelaide, Melbourne & Sydney to begin new lives in Cairns. Why are they coming? Warm weather, relaxed living, moving to be close to family! Lots of reasons, the tropical lifestyle sure looks appealing!

Huge news this week with Cairns set to host 2,000+ delegates at the 2014 G20 Finance Summit. Julia’s scored a few brownie points for that. The Federal Government alone will be spending some $340 million on “infrastructure / support” and some of this will feed directly into our economy. The Cairns Regional Council will also be looking at plans for the city, surely its all positive.


Bruce Highway Upgrade



The proposed Ray Jones Drive intersection upgrade

Lots of action on two of the southern highway intersections with millions of dollars being injected into the new by-passes, built to cope with our increasing population.  Stage one of the Cairns Bruce Highway Upgrade is the $150 million upgrade of the Sheehy Road (Forest Gardens) to Ray Jones Drive section. It will improve safety and traffic flow, reduce congestion and enhance access for 55,000 motorists using the southern access into Cairns each day.

The announcement of new flights to & from China is another bit of good news for us.

There is always a party killer somewhere. The announcement that the Cairns Regional Council will raise rates by 3.5% this year has stirred everyone up. There have been many government job loses about town too.

All in all, Cairns is enjoying a new spring in its step as confidence returns. I was in Port Douglas on Friday night and could not believe the amount of tourists out & about. The pubs were full, people lining up at restaurants – what a change from 12 months ago……Wow! Cairns is much the same.

All this action has had no effect on real estate prices with plenty of owners still married to excessively high expectations of sale prices. We won’t pop the champagne yet. We are still at 2005 prices & it looks like we’ll be here for a while.

5 years on a downer has made us cautious…..but we are cracking smiles….Bring it on!

Have a great week, Debbie

How Exciting!!!

RE/MAX Australia Launches a Truly Global Real Estate Listing Site

www.global.remax.com, the first truly global resource for consumers, with hundreds of thousands of home listings in countries around the world has officially been launched here in Australia and is about to go live. The site features customised search tools that allow buyers to search for properties in 30 languages, translate currencies and find the latest international real estate news.

RE/MAX Australia agents are now able to provide a medium by which buyers can view their properties in their native language and currency, regardless of where they are located. Did you know that over 20% of Australian households do not use English as their first language? An increasing number of foreign buyers are looking for property in Cairns and throughout Australia, and vice versa. www.global.remax.com is essentially a one-stop source for residential and commercial real estate, no matter where you live.

RE/MAX has a presence in more than 80 countries, a global reach far greater than any competitor and the power of such a site of this scale will open the doors to international business. How amazing it will be for us to list properties for sale! We are all very excited about this new product available to us particularly in consideration of the number of Asian buyers that have recently been snapping up properties around our Cairns area. What I do love about these buyers, nearly all of them are cash buyers!

Have a great week, Debbie

An Opportunistic Time to Buy In Cairns

Still plenty of evidence rolling in showing we may well be at the bottom of the market. Residential Property Investors need to be prepared for the long term and pay close attention to their rental incomes. Some Property Management departments are reporting vacancy rates as little as 0.43% with houses sitting at 0.55% and units at a meniscal 0.34%. Yes, rents have to rise. The current median price of established houses is officially $343,000, according to the latest Herron Todd White Report, while units sit at $257,000, surprisingly high in consideration of the lack of new construction, volume in sales prior to July and the great losses many owners have had to wear after purchasing during the years from 2006 to 2007.

Herron Todd White reports there are positive indications of improvement, with growing tourism numbers and expectations of a renewal of building activity stimulated by rental housing shortages. Recovery has been, and will continue to be, slow progress.  The trend in new house construction is increasing, the volumes of sales increasing and the stage of the Property Cycle is at the bottom. Click here if you want to subscribe to the Herron Todd White Cairns Watch Report.

All good news when compared to this time last year. Bear in mind, we will not know where the bottom of the market is until it starts going up!

For all you renovators out there, there has never been a better time to pick up an old, tired, but well positioned property as we find an emerging trend of buyers who fit the mould of “DIFM” buyers. (Do It For Me) replacing the heady days of DIY’s (Do It Yourself) buyers. Many people are genuinely time poor and prefer a set-and-forget style of investment. If you are prepared to roll up your sleeves and get stuck into a renovation project, I’d be hanging around the weekend Auctions in the coming months! Remember, more millionaires were made in the great Depression than any time in history. Snap up a bargain, do your costing’s wisely and take advice from either a reputable real estate agent, or qualified valuer who can estimate the outcome once completed. If you want to get an idea of what is selling in your preferred area, send me an email requesting PRICEFINDER SHARE and I’ll hook you up to the back end of our market database via the internet.

Have a great week!  

Signs of a Turn In Cairns

What an exciting month this is shaping up to be in our Cairns marketplace! There has been an absolute buzz about with a big hit of pent up buyers slamming the market and snapping up bargains from the 1^st of July. 

As expected, the reintroduction of the Owner Occupier State Stamp Duty Concession has certainly given us a leg up, interest rates remain totally affordable and the lack of stock continues to frustrate buyers. It is interesting that many buyers, many of whom initially appear quite arrogant in the belief that they are indeed in control of the market, lose the smug smile, turning to dismay as multiple offers  begin to surface on well priced properties. Believe me, the majority of agents dread the multiple offer situation as it is always the real estate agent perceived to be the bad guy who has to give the bad news to the buyers who miss out! Several buyers are now missing out on their dream homes hoping prices will continue to slide.

I’d love a dollar for every person that mentions “I’ll just wait until the prices drop further, the owner will be forced to drop their price”.  It’s a tough call. Will they drop further? They could. What effect will the National and International economy have on our market?

Reports from America are clearly showing a marked improvement in their residential markets…you would imagine that would be impossible! Unbelievably, prices are actually rising in parts of America, sales are increasing.

Let’s not get too excited. The pace of recovery will be slow, the prices of many homes will continue to decline. Hundreds of people in Cairns remain underwater, owing more on their homes than the homes are worth, and unable to sell. A setback in a fragile economic recovery could easily reverse the situation.

Compared to other investments, real estate is still the safest bet of all. There are not a whole lot of places to put your money. The marked increase in Self Funded Superannuation Trusts purchasing properties in the past few months tells us the story.

It feels very much like we have hit the bottom in Cairns and we are starting to come off that bottom but,  we are all a little nervous about that word “recovery”.   

Have a great week!

Is this the "sign of the times"

Interest in Cairns Real Estate Continues To Build

Interest in the Cairns residential housing market continues to build as we head towards the final countdown. It is just two weeks from the reintroduction of the Home Occupiers Stamp Duty Concessions in Queensland, on July 1st. Great to see crowds beginning to build at our advertised Open Homes and Auctions! I have just come from a Receivership Auction at Trinity Beach with a crowd in attendance of some 80+ people with several strong bidders, crowds not seen for some 4 years in Cairns. While there is plenty of interest, we are still dealing with the most educated buyers we have ever experienced. There are so many internet sites for buyers to learn and understand the market and property values. One to watch out for is www.onthehouse.com.au.

We are well and truly entrenched in a Buyers Market whereby, they call the shots and Sellers remain either wedded to prices that, in many instances, are simply unachievable in the present Cairns market. Or banks retain a strangle hold on Property owners who simply cannot sell for the prices that buyers want to pay due to negative equity.

There is no doubt that sales volumes are increasing and prices stabilising in a trend, that many say, could last for several years. The good news is that there is plenty of action going on in what is possibly the new “normal market” for our region.

Regards,

Debbie Aldred

Cairns Property Pulse

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Huge interest at todays Trinity Beach Auction 16-6-2012

Welcome!

Homes of the beautiful Cairns Esplanade - 12/6/12

Welcome!

Welcome to Cairns Property Pulse by Debbie Aldred. My goal is to provide you with a quick, easy read update on the Cairns Property Market. Many of you have known me for several years now and are well aware that "I tell it how it is".

My updates will be based on my observations while out and about doing what I do best.....selling real estate. Speaking with real people, real sellers, real buyers, ...real landlords and real tenants. I will also attach local news articles, market reviews from the likes of Herron Todd White, and newsy local articles that you will genuinely find interesting. I am always conscious of the fact that some 75% of our clients are from other parts of Australia (and from the world), often in completely different property cycles.

I am one of the top Cairns residential sales specialists and am proud to be part of the World's #1 real estate agency group, RE/MAX Real Estate Services.

I am passionate about real estate and I trust that I can keep you in tune with what is happening in this beautiful, tropical paradise we all know as Cairns.

I would also like to invite you to check out my Facebook page Facebook.com/CairnsPropertyPulse for further updates on the local real estate scene......and if you like it, please click on the little hand!

Kind regards, Debbie