February News 2009

The RBA (Reserve Bank of Australia) dropped interest rates by 1% on 3 February 2009. It is expected that there will be more interest rate cuts as the RBA prepare for the full brunt of the world economic meltdown to hit Australia. Interest rates in the UK are now at 1%.

The low interest rates & the share market collapse & the first home buyers grants are seeing investors & first home buyers’ coming back into the market. These 2 groups of buyers haven’t been active since the bubble burst in the property market in the beginning of 2004.

The sub $400,000 bracket is moving extremely well & there now is a shortage of stock in this price range, as demand is outstripping supply.

Sales for 2008 were 45% down on 2007, which shows that the lack of confidence amongst both buyers & sellers. There was a lot of doom & gloom being reported in the papers, the share market collapsed & the interest rates were still going up until March 2008.

March 2008 was one of the most significant lows in consumer confidence in the last 5 years, according to reporters at realestate.com.au

With more interest rate cuts & investors getting out of the stock market, we hope to see an increase in activity & hopefully not a repeat of 2008. We are starting to see properties neutrally or positively geared which hasn’t been seen in our area before.

Ray White Toronto had a market share of at least 27% over the last financial year – this means more than 1 out of every 4 properties in the area was sold by Ray White Toronto