The election has been called for 18th May by Scott Morrison. Elections are always a turbulent time for real estate prices, as policy promises start to become a distinct and near possibility. In this vlog Henry has some advice for both buyers and sellers. Here’s the transcript:
“Hi, I’m Henry Wong from RE/MAX. We’re here to talk about the federal election. As you know, it looks like the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, has confirmed a federal election to be the 18th of May, next month.
At the end of the day, will the election affect you? We have a look at the major parties, more than likely one of the major parties is going to win. But at the end of the day, how this will affect the real estate market depends on their policies towards real estate.
Depending on who gets into government, you can wait and see. From a buyer’s point of view, you could wait 6 months, 12 months, and see how the policies come into effect. You’re what we call a speculative buyer. You don’t need to buy now, you’re just going to wait and see how things pan out.
Same with the seller. Some sellers are like, “You know what, Henry? We don’t have to sell, we can just wait and see how things pan out over the next 6 to 12 months to see how the government policies come into place.”
Remember, irrespective of who gets into government, whatever they propose, it still has to go through parliament. It still has to go through the lower house and upper house before it becomes law.
On the other side of the coin, will this affect your decision making? That depends, I guess, if you have a real need to move. For example, if you’re a seller and you’re a retiree, you’re in your 60s, 70s, 80s, and let’s say a spot has freed up in your retirement village, and you’ve been waiting for that place for the past three years.
Are you going to wait another 6 or 12 months and see how the Federal election goes? No, probably not. Because if you don’t secure that spot, there’s probably 20, 30, 50 other people who will secure that spot, so you have a real need to move. So you’re going to make a decision and you’re going to put your house on the market.
Same thing is, if you’re a buyer. If you just secured a job, you’re relocating from Brisbane to Sydney, you’ve got your dream job and it requires you to move. But you’re not going to pay rent down in Sydney and pay a mortgage because it’s just financially not viable.
Or if you’re a seller and you’ve just bought another property, and you’re paying two mortgages now, one on your existing home and one on your next home, but you can’t afford to pay two mortgages. So irrespective of who gets into government, you have a real need to sell.
At the end of the day, if you’re a speculative buyer or seller, I guess you could say, we’ll wait and see how it will go over the next 6 to 12 months, who gets into government and how will this affect the real estate market. Or if you have a real need to sell, or a real need to buy, you’re going to move irrespective of who comes in.”
