Login
Brisbane sellers ‘shoot for stars’, land in the red
Some Brisbane sellers are losing thousands by overestimating demand and overpricing their homes, often ending up with weaker-than-expected sales.
Despite rising demand across the city, Brisbane sellers have been overestimating the luxury market, pricing properties higher than buyers are willing to pay.
Recent data have shown that Brisbane’s overall market continued to soar, outpacing most other capital cities, yet luxury properties have been failing to attract the same level of interest.
Hot Property Buyers Agency managing director Zoran Solano said that overestimating demand in Brisbane’s prestige property market has been costing sellers tens of thousands, as they often reject auction offers, leading to settlement in private treaty for less later.
Solano said that sellers who refuse to accept auction prices may be leaving thousands of dollars on the table.
He said that prestige properties, particularly those above $3 million, were not experiencing the same level of demand as the city’s more affordable options.
Comparatively, Solano said Brisbane properties within the $800,000 to $1.2 million price range were seeing fierce competition, with buyers willing to pay significant premiums or remove finance clauses to secure a home.
Similarly, he said there was strong demand for properties between $1.5 million and $2 million.
Despite not having access to the same pool of buyers, Solano said that sellers in the prestige markets were still willing to try and “shoot for the stars”.
He said that it had become increasingly common for sellers to take their property to auction, only not to reach the reserve and sell for less at a later date.
“Then those properties are sitting on the market for a while and often end up selling for significantly less than what the top bid had been at auction,” Solano said.
“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, so vendors are perhaps being a bit greedy because they believe that the prestige market is as hot as the more affordable segment when it’s not.”
Solano said that instead of accepting a price near their reserve, sellers are holding out, only to end up with post-auction offers lower than what they could have secured.
He added that buyers in the prestige market were in a favourable position and could take their time to find the right property at a fair price.
“While it is always risky to let a property pass in at auction, if it is seriously overpriced, that is far better than buying it at an inflated price – sometimes several hundred thousand above market value,” he concluded.