Beenleigh and Eagleby Market Update

Looking to stay ahead in the Beenleigh Eagleby property market. Want to get local insights from someone who knows this community inside and out? Then you've come to the right place. I'm Benjamin wait, and welcome to Worth the Waite Beenleigh and Eagle Bee's Local property podcast where we'll be diving into everything you need to know about real estate right here in our beautiful region. Welcome back to Worth The Waite, the podcast that gives you the real story on real estate in Beenleigh and Eagleby. I'm here with Benjamin Waite, principal of LJ Hooker Beenleigh, the go-to expert when it comes to buying, selling, and everything in between across this. Pocket of beautiful Southeast Queensland. Now, today we're diving into what's really happening in the local property market. It's an update. Okay? We're gonna talk about what is going on because he's got his finger on the pulse right here, right now. So if you are thinking of making a move or just want to know what's going on. Ben's gonna give us the lowdown. Ben, welcome to what is your podcast? With a little bit of a change of format with us having a chat about it. We have changed a little bit, Adam. it's nice to not have to do the intro. Thank you for Absolutely. Thank you for doing that for us. No, you are welcome. And you nailed it way better than I was going to. I'm really interested in this because obviously I do a bit around real estate and love to know what's going on. 'cause markets do change. They do. They change quickly. They change without notice. And everyone has their guess at what. Actually other leavers behind that. We're having a chat about that just before the yes, the podcast started. So we all, we all need something to chat about around the water cooler at work we do. Or the barbecue we do. Is it interest rates? Is it this, is it that, so look, let's start with the big picture. So just, give me a bit of a synopsis. What is happening in your area? Beenleigh and Eagleby Logan generally, yeah. I think even if you take that further out to a national level the market is. Pretty strong. Yep. We've got some kind of out. Standing states that are going. So Perth very strong. Queensland's very strong. Adelaide is good. I think Melbourne is underperforming or undervalued I reckon at the moment. Undervalued. I don't wanna, I don't wanna talk Southeast Queensland or myself out of a job here, but I think, if you're an interstate investor, I think Melbourne's got a little bit of upside of the moment. Yep. Sydney's a obviously a bit of a blue chip Stillwater there, but Gold Coast, very strong. Brisbane strong Southeast Queensland is still got a nice that's gold shine to it. Yep. A lot of buyers owner occupies are still migrating up here for the lifestyle perspective, and I think that we've got enough employment up here leading into all the infrastructure gains leading into the Olympics. There's plenty of jobs, so a lot of people are still keen to move up. Definitely not as much as what it was a number of, four or five years ago during that kind of COVID cycle. That was an anomaly, wasn't it really? It was definitely, yeah. It was anomaly, but it was probably an anomaly that the Southeast Queensland needed to have. Yeah. Pricing was pretty stagnant for quite a long time. Yeah. Before that, very undervalued compared to lower, the Yeah. Southern states, weren't we? Yeah. And also I, if you're really looking at the Logan, like there was still, it was kinda chipping away in Gold Coast because it had that really lifestyle piece around it. The water was right there, but Logan really didn't have a huge amount going for it. Really. Yeah. And it had a bit of a stigma around it, Logan itself. So it real, there was a 15 year period where there was zero growth. I would appraise a property, I'd be meeting with sellers, and I would be giving them the same price as they did when they bought it 15 years ago. Wow. Which was, which is that's an anomaly in itself too, isn't it? Unheard of. Yeah. Coming from Melbourne where there's incremental growth all the time. All the time. I was scratching my head around that. And there's a number of reasons around that, and I'm happy to go through that with, with people individually. 'cause there's a bit of, there's a bit to unpack there but I suppose it's, long story short, what COVID brought was the demand that was required for the growth. And we had 15, 20 year growth over a two or three year period. Now that's our normal Yep. Or abnormal. Yep. But if you extrapolate that timeframe out to 20 years. It's pretty normal. Yeah. If you look at the, across that time, not the peak and trough and so forth, or that, that period where it did nothing. So we're probably where we are today, we're probably where we should be. Already, we just needed the jab in the arm that, but it's coming in. Yeah. In peaks and troughs. Gotcha. So right now prices going up, down stagnant prices? No. Prices are still up. Okay. Definitely I think that at the start of this year, it was probably stagnant. I think definitely in the high price markets it was definitely sta. Where the Logan and the Bean, Lee Eagleby south kinda Logan area is very much driven. It's affordable stock, so it's very much driven by first owned buyers. Yep. So they're still always in the market. That's where the volume of demand usually sits. So that was burbling away but definitely it plateaued. I think time on market extended out a little bit, and again, a lot of people were kinda waiting for the first interest rate drop waiting for the election to come. So we really found probably that turnaround. After the election and the interest rate the second interest rate reduction announcement, and that was like a switch that, that was flicked. Okay. We would probably have something that might sit on the market for four weeks and we were really we had to work a bit to get a buyer interested and to get offers. Sure. We are now the last probably, 10 or 15 properties I've sold in the last couple of months. We've had multiple offers. And it like, I've had one with 17 offers. Wow. 11 offers, eight offers on the weekend, another property. Yeah. So demand is still very strong still there, and still definitely driven by first term buyers and then also investors are really coming into the market too. Sure. Okay. So with that all happening, what are you seeing in terms of the behaviors of buyers and sellers over the last few months? What are you seeing on the ground at Open Homes? Foot traffic is de, we're definitely seeing, I still see that people are looking for. A house over a townhouse, whether they can that depends on affordability. Okay. Still, definitely the preference is a house. A classic example is we had a two bedroom house. Very rare to have a two bedroom house. Yeah. We had a two bedroom house. Wow. And eight offers on that. So people are still, it's probably more in a lower range I would imagine then. Yeah. That was so that transacted at high sixes. Okay. So the first term buyer grants dictate the market a lot, which is capped at 700,000. Yep. So to buy a property. At 700,000 or under is white hot at the moment, right? Yeah, white hot. Very hard to find now, and it's probably a bit of a false economy, a little bit where something that maybe should be worth six 50. First term buyers are just pushing it up to 700 just because they can What, what happens there? Okay. 'cause you've just put a little light off in my head again. I'm not in real estate. Yeah. So you've got this 700, you've got this big market of buyers wanting it. It's, it, you look at it as a six 50 home. Yep. All the, all the offers stop at six nine. Nine. Yes. 9, 9, 9. Yes, they do. So what happens there? We would have we could, I've had a property, we've had six offers at 700,000, right? And when I go back to them and say look pick your buyer. I'm taking this as a seller. I need some way for you to differentiate yourself. How can someone. Is it on your hair color or, how do you do that? For the buyer, you like the most. So there's some tips around that. There's some terms and some conditions that you can help to improve but you're absolutely right. 700,000 is where the pri where the government grants stop and we're getting multiple people that can only, I, Ben, I'd love to pay you more, but all I can literally do is 700,000 because I need the grant. Yep. Gotcha. It's difficult. It's difficult. It makes sense. Alright. Hot topic, always interest rates. They were kept on hold. How are, how is that? Impacting things as, as far as you see it, probably a little too early to show real impact, yet I think that people still feel the general consensus is there's still some negative rate decreases on the horizon sooner rather than later. Yep. So I don't think it's changed sentiment and the thoughts of buyers a huge amount. It's, I think it's just kicked the can down the road a little bit. Sure. So demand's still strong inquiry. We've launched couple properties this week, inquiry level's still really good. What I think is assisting that, and you might be, that might be one of your next questions is the amount of listings, amount of stock that's available. That is my very next question. Oh, sorry Adam. I pinch your thunder there. Yeah stock is probably depending on where you read, there's a number of different charts out there that track this stuff. But you roughly on a quarterly basis, we're about eight to 10% down in stock. So obviously less stock, more demand, and then obviously there's gonna be, more buyers fighting over the one piece of stock. Sure. So that kind of counteracts it a little bit. What about seasonality, Ben? We've also, we're also typically in the slowest selling. Season, aren't we in winter going into The highest, aren't we? Yeah. Into spring. Could that be playing a part in this as well? Yeah, it could be. I think the last seasonality hasn't had as big a impact as what it has before because the demand has been so strong. Yep. And has been sustainably strong throughout the seasons. You're right. Winter is typically a slower selling season. And spring is a higher selling season. I think if you're a seller, I think you should list in winter because you have less competition. Yep. But there's still plenty of buyers out there. If you need a house, you are looking, you buyers don't go, oh, it's spring, it's sunny, I'm gonna start looking for a house now it's a need. Yep. So they're gonna be looking all year. I think that there's some opportunity that you can, there's some opportunities there from a seller's perspective but yeah, like seasonality would play a little bit of part in it. Tax time. Also pay a little bit of part in it as well. Sure. Yeah. Fantastic. Alright. You knew this one was coming. Predictions for the next three to six months. I feel that there's still gonna be some growth. I think that there will be more growth. So growth is capped in our market specifically is capped around the first term buyer grants. Yep. Which we've kinda spoken about. Sure. Yeah. The nuance to that or the caveat around that is that the first owned buyer grants are going to be increased to a million dollars next year. Are they? Yeah. Right. So that opens up a whole new Yeah, whole new can worms. So that gives, that gives a $300,000 runway for everybody. It brings a whole new part of the market into. Yeah, it does. And you still got Gold Coast, which you can't really buy much for hundred million dollars. So a lot of those guys are still gonna be buying where we are. Sure. Which is where, who's in operation at the moment. Great. For your area? Yeah, it's great for the sellers, great for property growth. There's a whole piece around politically is that the right thing to do or not, and where, there's plenty of people above our pay grade that sorts that out. Sure. But I think where that will happen, and the answer to your question around growth over the next two to three years, what is selling for 700,000 today will just be a million dollars. Yep. In whatever that timeline looks like, you're just gonna see that. Is it a year, is it free? It depends on the buyers and what they end up doing, but there's definitely really strong growth, 30% growth over the next, two or three years for the area. Wow. Wow. Good news. Okay, final question. If someone's unsure whether. Now's the right time to buy or sell in Beenleigh and Eagleby, what's your advice? From a buying perspective, we just spoke about it. You, if you buy today, you are now the things a guarantee, but the mechanics and the economic mechanics around things is that the, it will grow. The chances are. Yep. So there's growth there. And I think no one can argue that. So that's a great time to buy, to sell. I get this question a lot and you might say, Ben, if you're talking about all this growth that's gonna be ha gonna happen, why should I sell now? Why don't know. Wait. Yeah. And that's a fair, that's fair question. Super. Yeah. Very valid question. I think why now is a great time to sell is it's a fantastic time to change over your asset. Okay? So if you're an investor. You've got maybe a C or a B grade asset. Yep. Maybe a two bedroom or a one bedroom unit. Or you might have a two bedroom house or a house that's costing you a lot of money in maintenance. Yep. Now's a great time. Turn it over to capitalize on it with a strong demand. Yep. 'cause a lot of these be C grade assets are typically tough to sell in a different market. Yep. In not as strong a market. Yep. Capitalize on the strong market and then buy an A Grade asset. An A grade asset might be a larger home on a larger bit of dirt, or it might be in a different area, a more premium area. Sure. So from an investment perspective, from an owner occupied perspective, again, the great opportunity to change over and. Move into, usually you're changing over into a bigger asset or downsizing, but it's usually in a better area. So it'd be a higher price point, and then you can enjoy that appreciation over a more expensive asset. So 30% on a million dollar asset is gonna be more in real money than what it will be on a $700,000 asset. Perfect. Got it mate. Fantastic. Always great to get a local expert agent's perspective on what's really happening in the local market. So look, if you are thinking of selling or just wanna know what your home might be worth in today's conditions, Ben's got the local knowledge, the experience, the strategy to guide you through it. Now, as always, you can find him at LJ Hooker Beenleigh, and congratulations on becoming the the principal there in the last little while. Thank you and but of course you've also could find you@benjaminwait.com au. And look, don't forget to subscribe to Worth the wait for more property insights and real estate conversations that will keep you in the know. And we'll both catch you. We're in the next episode. Thanks for joining me. Thank you. Thanks for tuning in to Worth the wait. If you enjoyed the podcast, please be sure to share with a friend and don't forget to hit that subscribe so you won't miss an episode and all my local property tips, updates, and insights. Until next time, I'm here when you need.