Your dream home is going ONCE, going TWICE, and SOLD to somebody else! Amber stood outside on the grass of the property she lost looking over at a wealthy couple as they smiled at their new investment.
The auction felt as if it went for hours despite the auctioneer speaking ten times faster than a regular human. His neck was throbbing with adrenaline as he called out the numbers driving the price of the property higher and higher above the market average. The wealthy couple were determined to win the house, not a trigger of emotion fluttered through the man’s expression as he challenged the increasing increments of five thousand dollars.
It was clear that Amber had lost the race long before the auction concluded, but like drawing blood from stone the auctioneer knew which words would strike her wounds and kept her in right up until the end.
The property in Kardinya auctioned for $899, 000 well above the area median and excessively more than a comparable Kardinya property the sold for $640, 000 back in August 2020. This 40% increase is a reflection on how hungry the property market has become as the economy rebounds from the corona virus shut down back in March 2020.
Once the auction was over and the adrenaline had worn off Amber burst into tears. The sadness swelled in her eyes as she came to terms with the loss of the family sized block she required.
Amber had been in a wheelchair since she was a teenage after a horrendous car accident resulted in the loss of her leg and significant damage to the other. Amber requires a single storey wheelchair friendly home, a specification which significantly reduced the number of properties that Amber could live in with her husband and two toddlers.
“My biggest competition is investors; due to the fact I am looking for large sized land which investors want to subdivide,” Amber says.
The young mother is passionate about finding a home, she has been looking for over two years. She explains it is only now she is in the financial position to purchase something which is a catch 22 because she is excited but also scared because she’ll have to pay more than ever for a property.
Amber describes her feelings at the auction as a rush fuelled by FOMO. She says that it’s the fear of missing out and the not knowing what people want you to pay that was the hardest part of it all, “I just wish they told you how much they wanted in the beginning, it feels like you’re going in blind.”
Amber is not the only person to be fuelled by FOMO in their search for their dream home. Garima from the southern suburbs of Perth says she could really feel the panic start to set in when she started her search.
As Garima spoke about buying a home her face is flushed with excitement as she describes the street she is obsessed with in Palmyra. Her partner Nathan smirked, he is also very excited about their first home but knows it will be challenging to meet Garima’s expectation on living on Zenobia street. They know the street very well as they have been scouting out options for their first family home since October 2020.
Garima says she was quick to realise she was buying in a seller’s market. She thought she would have time to consider her potential options but quickly figured this was not the case.
“House prices are going up and up, to the point where we saw house prices go up 100k in the same suburb (on the same street in fact) between December 2020 and January 2021 right in front of our eyes,” says Garima.
REIWA President Damian Collins confirms the shift in the market saying there is a
fundamental imbalance between the supply and demand in the sales market. He says “buyers must act quickly and in competition with one another to secure a property, which is driving up house prices.”
The couple struggled in their search, especially at the start while Nathan was working away. “We would schedule to go to home opens but by the time Nathan was back the properties were already under offer,” says Garima.
Garima and Nathan went to many home opens 10 of which she described as very serious options and six that the couple put offers on. On the seventh attempt they finally secured a home on Zenobia Street.
They did have to expand their overall budget to secure the property but were comfortable with what they spent. Garima says “there was a fine line between remaining competitive but not going completely over budget.”
The Perth Real-estate market continues to swell into what Damian calls ‘The Perfect Storm.’
“We need to get more homes and apartments built. Until we see supply catch up with demand, we will see prices continue to rise.”
