It’s a good time to be a broker: as property prices boom in Australia, those in charge of getting the loans that buy the houses have never been busier.
With the property boom showing no signs of slowing down, it seemed like the perfect time to check in with the broker community and catch up with their experiences from the front line of Australia’s remarkable rebound.
“Building approvals are at an all-time high, and the supply of materials such as timber is short,” said Sofie Chapman, a broker with almost a decade in the industry and over two decades in the property sector.
“With the price of building set to go up 6% and not enough supply of established homes to meet the market demand, I believe the boom is sustainable for now. I think the slowdown will occur when people start travelling abroad and spending money overseas.”
While times are good, there is still plenty of hard work to be done to get ahead.
“Pre-approvals take time and have a lower conversion rate. Often the pre-approval lapses and we need to rewrite the entire application and go through the whole qualifying process again. There is a lot of time invested in writing applications, following up the client, assisting them with negotiation skills when making offers, and preparing property reports.”
“I believe there is a great opportunity to focus on people wanting to renovate and refinance,” adds Chapman. “I have clients who love where they live and don’t want to move. They are in a great position to borrow the funds needed to make their home a castle. There are also great refinance offers at the moment, and if it’s in your client’s best interest to do so they should consider refinancing.”
“If you are going to expand to a regional area, be prepared for a lot of hard work networking. Regional customers tend to want to support local businesses, so if you are going to go into a regional area you should be prepared to go to the local football games, and support local initiatives, clubs and events. Unless you have a weekender in a regional area, I imagine it would a hard market to crack into.”
Chapman’s experiences were shared by Tom Uhlich, a broker of 17 years, first with Aussie and latterly with his own company, Boss Money Mortgage Broking, based in Brisbane.
“The last three months have been our biggest,” he said. “The enquiries are an interesting one, as all this hype and activity has brought out plenty of people who have FOMO but can’t really get into the market. Hence, enquiries to actual lodgement conversion is much lower than pre COVID.”
“I think COVID gave people time, time to realise they don’t want to live in their home any more, time to realise they like their home but it needs some additions. More importantly, people who can now work from home going forward have thought to themselves, if I can work from home, why am I living in Sydney, Melbourne or even Brisbane? Why am I in a city when I can head up or down the coast or even go bush?”
“We have seen 35% of our loans that fit this category. Looking at our business, we have our highest percentage of pre-approvals ever. So many buyers and so little houses have pushed prices north, way north.”
Australian Broker also gained the expert views of experienced Sydney real estate agent Simon Nolan of McGrath and Sydney buyer's agent Amanda Gould of HighSpec Properties. Check out what they have to say and more in the full story appearing in the latest edition of Australian Broker magazine, available from 19 April.
