May 22, 2024 • 30 mins
In this weeks episode of Current Market Insights we tackle data and privacy, particularly how it is collected, what it is used for, and how you can request or protect your own. We also discuss the recent 'surge' of listings across the property market, and hit the hustings with our weekly Market Wrap.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All down, all silent, going, going, going, go on son
Congratulations.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Welcome to the Current Market Insights podcast
brought to you by HarrisPartners Real Estate.
Each episode we chat with realestate author and industry
leader, peter O'Malley, todiscuss the current property
market conditions and provideinsights to assist you on your
property journey.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Hello and welcome to another edition of Current
Market Insights.
I'm your host, kieran O'Brien,and with me, as always, is my
co-host and good friend, mrPeter O'Malley.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Peter, hello, g'day, kieran great to see you and
great to be here.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Great to see you, peter.
Another big week.
Well, I say that every week.
Actually, it's always a bigweek for us here in real estate.
It's the industry that neverstops, and I thought we might
talk today on a topic that Ifind really interesting, and I
think some of our listenersmight as well.
I wanted to start off in thedata space.
Everywhere you look now, theworld is talking about AI, it's
(01:04):
talking about data.
It's talking about how we areruled by the information that's
out there.
Anyone who's got kids knowsthat we're concerned about the
amount of data our kids haveaccess to and where it's going,
et cetera.
I would really love to spendjust a little bit of time today
talking about how data works inthe real estate industry, I
guess from an agency perspective, you know, do we use data and
(01:26):
how do we use it?
But also from a clientperspective what data do we
really need and use and what aresome of the implications and
protections in place for clientsout there?
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Kieran, real estate agents have traditionally relied
on advertising over data and,what's really interesting, in
the last six months of theindustry the real estate
industry training, how much ofit is focused on maximizing data
use.
So realestatecom and domain areabsolutely walloping real
(01:58):
estate agents with advertisingcosts and the only solution to
those costs for real estateagencies to better manage their
data which versions of what thatsuccess looks like is selling
properties off market withoutthe intervention of
realestatecom and domain,getting to listing opportunities
before your competitors do,because the data feeds you there
(02:21):
.
You've got to collect the data,nurture the data and harness it
as a real estate agent to beable to get those benefits out
of it.
But I think, more than mostindustries, the real estate
industry has overlooked thepower of data and, as I say,
just in the last six months,every industry trainer that I've
listened to has had a reallydeep focus on data.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
So if we draw back, then let's say you've been in
the industry for quite a longtime.
How has data collection evolvedfor you?
Primarily, I assume you knowhow we get someone's information
now and what their requirementsand interests are.
Around real estate is would beso much easier than it probably
was 25 or 30 years ago.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Well, it's actually easier actually easier 30, 25
years ago, because you could buycomplete lists of every suburb
straight off RP data or councilrecords.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Right.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
And the Privacy Act changed in 2001.
But in 2001, realestatecom andDomain were charging next to
nothing relative to the cost ofprint to real estate agents.
So agents were in thiswonderful space where they lost
the quality data that was beingprovided by RP Data, who are now
(03:35):
CoreLogic at the time.
But they just startedadvertising really, really mad
to compensate for that lack ofdata because, relative to the
cost of print in 2001,realestatecom and domain
represented tremendous value.
Fast forward 23 years.
Realestatecom and domain havegot pretty savage pricing in
(03:55):
place that vendors and realestate agents are increasingly
flinching at, and it's incumbentnow on the real estate agents
to build their own database,collect their own data but then
also work out the best ways tonurture and work that data.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Okay, so you say it was much easier prior to change
to the Privacy Act.
Does that mean that it'simpossible these days to acquire
data in the same way you knowbulk wholesale acquisitions or
it's maybe less readilyavailable since those changes?
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Look, I think you're entering really grey territory
here, where we were told at thetime that you could build your
own database, but selling ofdata was not permissible, like
it was prior to that key date in2001.
So when I first started in realestate, we had perfect records
of every homeowner andessentially nearly all of their
(04:51):
landline contact numbers inevery suburb.
That we wanted to, and it wasjust a matter of it wasn't
digital.
You just go and buy reams andreams of paper from this company
and you sit there and call it.
So clearly.
Data is now digital, which ismuch better for data mining and
cross-referencing.
Where, when I first started inthe industry, data looked like
(05:11):
getting the name and contactdetails of someone on a three by
five card, you still had theRolodex, that's right.
Yeah, the old Rolodex, yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Yeah, look it has.
It certainly has shifted, and Iit's.
One of the reasons I'm sointerested in this topic is I'm
someone who takes my data veryseriously as a consumer.
As a consumer and as aprofessional, I like to think
that I'm obviously very, verymindful of my requirements and
my obligations legislatively,but I'm also very mindful of not
(05:42):
breaching people's requestsaround data use and privacy,
because I also, as a consumer,don't like those things being
breached.
But I think, or I feel likewe've entered a phase where, as
you say, the ability tocross-reference and utilise data
across so many differentspheres means that it's such an
integral part of our day-to-daythat it's inevitable that
(06:02):
people's information is going toend up in the hands of people
that they maybe didn't intend onbeing in originally.
Do you think that's fair?
Speaker 1 (06:09):
oh look, I do.
I think that the the reality isis that technology front runs
government uh, government policyand regulations, if you like
and the government are nowtrying to catch up and put the
genie back in the bottle.
In terms of New South Wales,victor Dominello of the previous
state government was reallyreally focused on this space,
(06:33):
about data privacy.
And why do you need to give areal estate agent your driver's
licence, for example, just tomake an application on a rental
property, and what happens tothat data from there?
Due to the cost of labour, it'sbeen very common in the real
estate industry to outsourceback office work up in the
Philippines.
So someone innocently walksthrough an open house on a
(06:57):
Saturday morning in good faith,gives their contact details,
then hands over their driver'slicence to make an application
on the subject property and,before they know it, an unknown
person in the Philippines hasgot hold of all of that data and
assessing it.
So they're the sorts of thingswhere the marketplace will
always front run the governmentregulations and then it's up to
the government to to wind thatback in.
(07:18):
But as far as all of ourrespective digital footprints,
it's it's it's fair to say thatthere's more data out there than
we would care to imagine.
We've all had the horribleexperience of discussing
something socially around thekitchen table or at a bar or
something, and then, the momentyou open your telephone, open
(07:38):
the internet on your telephone.
What you're talking about isstaring back at you on the
screen, so is very, verypervasive, and, um, I'm not sure
how, um we get around it, otherthan going off the grid
deliberately, you know to, toavoid where data is taking us
and where technology is yeah,look, it's it really interesting
.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
I think, personally, data is so pivotal to everything
we do now that it really wecan't escape.
We, you know, you've, we'vefrankenstein's created the
monster, and, and it's too hardto put it back now, but it is a
situation where we need toembrace the power of data,
because it can enhance our livesin so many ways and the same
things that we might complainabout in one sphere aid us in
(08:19):
another, and and that's just thenature, I think, of this
interconnected world that we've,I guess, looking at this,
though, you as a real estateagent, and, let's say, me as a
consumer, when I come to thatopen home, is there anything I
can do or say?
Can I request not to be, youknow, form part of your database
when I come to a property?
If I wanted to?
Speaker 1 (08:40):
You can request that you don't have your data entered
into a database.
You can request that, eventhough you're handing over your
telephone number for securitypurposes as such, that you not
be requested or marketed to fromthere, and that's a pretty
common request at open houses, Imust say.
I think if you want to getreally deep about data, what
(09:03):
we're seeing across the industryis that there's software
providers that want agents toupload their entire databases
into their programs, and thenthere is they'll never quite
admit, for the admit to thisopenly, but if you do read their
terms and conditions, as I havethe consumer activity is
tracked in the background andthat consumer's activity not
(09:24):
their personal details, but thefact that they could be a hot
prospect is then pushed forwardto other clients who that
consumer may never have spokento.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Yeah, okay, so they're using metrics on people
to determine whether they mightbe in the market for a car or
whether they're.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
You know, in our case whether they're looking for a
particular home for example,Kieran O'Brien owns a house in
Balmain but interestingly, he'sbeen to four open houses in
Glebe.
Therefore, the system suggeststhat if he's looking at four
open houses in Glebe and helives in Balmain, he's what we
now call a potential prospectand he's put forward not with
(10:03):
all of that data explicitly putforward, but he's put forward to
real estate agents as a highquality candidate.
And how did the system identifyKieran O'Brien as a high
quality candidate for sellinghis home?
It's because of the activitythat Kieran undertook and the
system pushed him forward assomeone to keep an eye on.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Yeah right, and you're suggesting that this can
even offer my activity throughto an agency.
I've never engaged with in mylife the fact that you're a hot
prospect, not your specific.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Kieran O'Brien has gone to four open houses in
Glebe.
Yeah so this is why, wheneverI'm working on signing up a
listing, a really, really commoncomment coming from the
prospective seller for the lastfour or five years is I haven't
been speaking to any other realestate agent besides you, Peter,
but I'm suddenly getting allthese calls Now, those words
(10:55):
that I've just told you.
I would hear that every day ofthe week.
Yeah, wow, that's's surprising,I'll be honest uh, yeah, well,
again it comes back to the factthat they're probably surfing
online.
Maybe increase their rate ofopen house attendees,
inspections, um, as they um, youknow, try to track the market
(11:15):
digitally speaking, they'releaving a footprint behind them
as they do their research on theproperty market and never is is
because it would be a breach ofthe privacy act.
Never is one of these softwareproviders going to say to a
rival firm kieran o'brien'slooked at four houses in glebe
and he owns a property inbelmaine.
(11:36):
But they will push it forwardas a potential hot prospect list
and I'm looking at now one ofthose industry prospects and I'm
seeing the names that thepeople are pushing towards me
and I know they're heat mappingthat client's activity.
So they're not explicitlysaying this person is active in
the market, but I know it'simplied.
(11:58):
That's why they're being pushedforward as a recommended core
list today.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Yeah, that's really interesting that you say that
and that you've gotten thatfeedback on the ground, because
I do know CoreLogic, the companyyou mentioned earlier.
They have the ability withintheir system to tell you who is
likely to sell and obviouslythey're basing that on metrics
that we, you know as consumers,probably have no idea how
they're quantifying that, butthey've got an algorithm that
says, based on all of thesecriteria it might be time and
(12:26):
location, the average range ofownership in that particular
suburb for that particular typeof house, could be age,
demographics who knows howthey're getting this, but you
certainly can get access to whatis a predicted list of
potential sellers in a suburband if you've got a database
that has all that information,that really is quite powerful.
I'm interested, too, to getyour thoughts.
Just segueing back to somethingyou mentioned earlier about how
(12:49):
third-party companies areactively seeking your data to
include in their systems.
Would it be fair to say and youknow this might be a bit
cynical of me, but would it befair to say that that only
exponentially increases the riskalso of data loss, data breach?
You know where you've gotmultiple.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Look, uh, we're seeing the health care system go
through this.
We, we know obviously, uh, Ithink, was it.
Did optus have a data breach?
Speaker 3 (13:15):
I know they had optus yeah, they had a massive data
breach they did.
Yeah, I think it was 2 millioncustomers or something.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Yeah, and, as I say, the private health insurance
space has had a number of majorbreaches.
Shudder the day that it doeshappen en masse in the real
estate industry, but I can seeit happening.
I don't know if you've seen iton Netflix, but I'm watching
Ashley Madison at the moment.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
I haven't watched it, but I'm familiar with the
premise, like the story.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
So, for those that don't know what Ashley Madison's
about, that was the websitethat promoted affairs amongst
married people and they hadglobally 37 million people
signed up.
Credit card details, fantasies,desires, the whole works.
Credit card details, fantasies,desires, the whole works.
And they were hacked and given30 days to shut the entire
(14:08):
organisation down or the entiredatabase would be uploaded and
released, and the company didn'tshut down because the founder
felt that was unfair and alsowanted to float the company.
It was taking, I think, inrevenue, a quarter of a million
dollars a day in people buyingcredits to be able to speak to
other people online that wantedan affair and their partners
(14:28):
didn't know about it, and theydumped the whole lot on the
internet.
So Ashley Madison predatedTinder.
Tinder exists because AshleyMadison was essentially
destroyed in that space and, asI say, in the real estate
industry, there's a number ofserious players in the
Australian real estate marketthat are holding untold amounts
(14:49):
of data and heaven help us ifthat is ever breached.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Yeah, well, I'd imagine I've never really given
it much thought, but I wouldimagine some of the very large
franchised groups wouldcentrally hold millions of
people's details right, surely.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
I'm not sure about that because I've never been
part of a franchise, so I onlywant to speak to what I know,
and I'm speaking to the softwareproviders who run I guess you
might call it the digitalnervous system for real estate
agencies.
So real estate agents take alot of data.
It's a big issue, kieran.
We have to do compulsorypersonal development every 12
(15:28):
months, and this year it was amassive focus, as you know,
because we spoke about it at thetime, about data management,
what to do if you do have a databreach, how to prevent a data
breach, and we get it here inthe office.
We've got sensitive documentsaround the office.
We need a process for wheresensitive documents go.
Don't worry about digital online.
You know you might start a, ajunior in the office and they
(15:51):
will the uh, you know they willthe recycling bin out the front
for the council to pick it upunlocked and it's like bring
that bin back in.
You don't know what's in there.
So, as as a, as a principle ofa business that takes a lot of
data, you've got to be vigilantabout where all of this goes,
otherwise you'll, you'll, you'llcome undone in a PR nightmare
(16:13):
oh yeah, look, not just a PRnightmare but, you know, a
legislative one too.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
I think it's important to recognize that real
estate agents are mostly justreal estate agents.
We're not tech expertstypically, and this is a space
that may be foreign to a lot ofpeople, particularly if they've
been in the industry for a longtime.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Yeah well, we can't afford to.
So it's already moving.
The industry is already movingbeyond and we won't talk about
it today.
But the thing I'm gettingschooled up on at the moment is
that we've got to be aware ofmoney laundering and fraud.
We're having more legislationthrust upon us as real estate
agents about who is filteringdirty money through the economy
(16:53):
in the name of real estate,because that's a good way to
clean money with a capital gain,or even a capital loss, for
that matter.
So real estate agents can'tlive in this naive bubble
anymore.
I just sell houses.
You're exposed to sophisticatedcriminal networks that are
washing money, particularly in,I would say, the upper ends of
(17:14):
the Sydney and Melbourneproperty markets.
And no matter where you are inthe country, if you're standing
at an open house and taking datafrom people and then asking for
their driver's license and acopy of their council rates, etc
.
Etc.
You're taking serious personaldetails from people.
You you better have a processto to protect that and destroy
(17:34):
that when you don't need it yeah, absolutely it's.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
It's incumbent on all of us to make sure that we are
skilled up in the space and Icertainly, as we close the topic
, I encourage anyone out today,written by PropTrack, which is
an arm of realestatecom it'stheir research and sort of you
(18:07):
know reporting arm and theymentioned that April saw a
pretty big surge in listings andthey said that you know this
was a massive uptick in numberof listings on the market.
I'm really interested to getyour thoughts, peter, given that
we talk week after week aboutthe current market, what the
listing volumes look like, howthe market's faring.
I wouldn't have thought thatApril would be such a strong
(18:31):
resurgence.
Based on the article, you'd getthe impression that we were
facing another boom.
I'm interested is it a boom oris it a normal bounce after a
quiet period?
Speaker 1 (18:40):
That was a national number, wasn't?
Speaker 3 (18:41):
it Correct yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
So, look, I can't speak for the national market
because I haven't taken a lookat it, but when I do look at the
numbers here in Sydney, therewas a decline.
So I think the right responseto the points that you've just
raised there is talking aboutthe Australian property market.
As one is mistaken, there canbe booms and depressions going
(19:07):
on at the same time across thecountry.
Can I say that there can alsobe booms and depressed segments
of the market in the same city.
So at the moment, there's someproperties on the market not
with us, but there's someproperties on the market locally
where they're essentially onthe market for the same price
that the people paid in 2019.
(19:27):
Yeah well, and then there'sothers that have bought in 2020,
for example, and they're on themarket for 30 or 40% higher.
Now the common denominatorthere is, as we've discussed a
lot in the last six months, ittends to be the higher end of
the market.
That's charging and the breadand butter stuff that's getting
knocked around at the moment.
But generic reporting onproperty prices, about
(19:49):
Australian listings, australianhouse prices, is not worth the
paper it's written on.
And can I also say that, in myview, any commentary around
dwellings is actually not worththe paper it's written on either
.
You must always itemise out thedifference between how house
prices are performing and howapartments are performing,
(20:09):
because rarely do they operatein sync.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
I'm glad you mentioned that it's not worth
the paper it's printed on,because, really, what I wanted
to get, the crux of here, isthis is not an uncommon article.
Right Every other day you canread something about a boom here
, a boom there.
This is crazy, you know.
Results are off the charts,it's all it seems to me.
It's a hyperbolic space.
It's always the extreme, oneend or the other, it's chaos or
(20:35):
it's booming.
What role do you thinkindividual agents slash,
agencies, slash the industry atlarge play in supporting this
narrative?
And and I guess what I'm askingis do you think agencies or or
particular agents are engagingin paid articles in the and I
(20:57):
say not ads, because ads arequite obvious but paying for the
sake of getting an article outthere to pump a section of the
market that's going to benefitwhat?
Speaker 1 (21:05):
they work in.
Well, if that is happening, thejournalists need to be really,
really careful if there's nodisclosure there.
I've seen an increase of thetype of article that you read
and you think you're reading anews article and then there's a
disclaimer at some stage in inthe article that says this is
paid content I feel like I readevery other day about a buyer's
(21:28):
agent's success story.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
right, that's what made me think of this topic is
you know, you read, this personearning 35 000 a year bought 10
investments.
Like, oh gosh, that'sinteresting.
And I never go into thatthinking, wow, I'm going to get
rich.
I just read them out ofinterest.
And it's always this person nowruns X buyer's agency here or
whatever.
And this is clearly paidcontent.
And I wonder, if there is somuch hyperbolic reporting in the
(21:51):
space, what percentage can beviewed as actual news?
And that's a hard question, Iguess.
But you know, are we startingto get to a point where it's no
longer news reporting, it'spurely… Self-interest,
self-interest, there's nointerest like self-interest,
that's right.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Oh look, if you want to know how good a real estate
agent is, just ask them andthey'll spend the next….
Or look at the size of theirsign.
Right, yeah, that's it.
They'll take the next threehours explaining how good they
are and how well they've donefor their clients, which is fair
enough.
It's a very, very competitiveindustry.
I've never played that game.
(22:26):
And the reason I've neverplayed that game, Kieran, is
that I've seen as many consumerslose on real estate as I have
that have outperformed themarket.
The majority of people ridewith the market and the market
has rewarded buy and holdproperty owners very, very well
over the last 40 years, as weknow in Australia.
(22:48):
So whether you're an investor,a buy and hold investor, or
whether you bought your house inthe 1980s for $120,000.
You still own it today.
It's probably worth over $2million tax-free and all you've
ever done is maintain it, so tospeak.
Warren Buffett would be veryproud Peter.
Yeah, that's right.
And someone said to him whatwas Buffett's line, how do you
(23:12):
get rich?
And he said you get rich slowly.
And he said well, why don'tmore people do it?
And he said because I don'tlike the slowly part, something
along those lines yeah, spot on.
And so, yes, there are peoplethat win big on the property
market.
Let's not kid ourselves.
Their timing's perfect.
What I can say about a lot ofthose people is they stumble
into it.
I actually have not met in my25 years of selling real estate
(23:41):
in the inner west.
I have not seen a developer, aflipper, a speculator that has
constantly outperformed themarket and been able to identify
and trade off opportunitiesthat others have missed.
Worse than that, I have seenpeople outperform the market two
or three transactions in a rowand they start thinking they
walk on water and, like agambler at the table, the next
(24:02):
transaction they do goes wrongand it wipes out all the gains.
And I some names jump into mymind when I think about those
people and I'm not happy thatthat's happened to them.
But they got ahead ofthemselves, thought they had the
game iced and they knew how tooutperform the market on a
continual basis.
(24:23):
And I can tell you, whenthey're doing that final
transaction that's wiped out allof the previous gains because
they've gone loud and large intoit.
It's a very, very painful placeto be watching it all happen.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Yeah, really interesting, peter.
I think it is.
For me, it is an industry thattrades on success, as you say,
and you know that's a far morecompelling story than the one
that doesn't work.
But I often wonder, you know,it must be really hard for
people that aren't in theindustry to keep a real good
track of what's actuallyhappening out there, given that
(24:58):
the narrative is so skewed mostof the time.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Oh look, it is.
If I can go to a text messagethat I got today.
I wasn't going to mention this,but you've touched on this
topic.
Hi, peter, hope you're well.
I'm looking at using thisproperty buying company to aid
me in getting multipleinvestment properties behind me.
The company's called let's justcall it XYZ, and it's headed by
a guy called, who I won'tmention.
(25:22):
He's doing pretty well forhimself with over 230 properties
in his own portfolio.
I know you're busy, but seewhat you think when you get a
chance, please.
I've done a good bit ofresearch and they seem like the
real deal, with good reviews.
Reviews are probably written byour friend's mother.
But there you go, and thenwe're catching up on Thursday
(25:42):
night.
So the first part of Thursdaynight will be saving my friend
from making a massive mistake byinvesting with this buyer's
agency firm.
If it is so profitable, why arethese people out selling
courses and advice to thegeneral public?
Why aren't they just continuingto expand and explode the way
(26:04):
that they claim?
Speaker 3 (26:05):
Well, yeah, he'd have 2,300 properties instead of 230
if that was the way to go.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
And the fellow in question here is not the only
one that we've seen.
He's been around for a littlewhile now.
He's drawn a little bit ofpress.
There's others that have doneit as well, and they've all end
up doing the same thing.
They all end up selling courses, trying to tell mum and dad,
retail investors, how they canget rich from property.
You can't get rich quickly fromproperty unless you're
(26:31):
extremely lucky, but you can gobroke quickly.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
Yeah, that's really sage advice.
Look as we move towards awrap-up tonight, peter, yeah,
we'll jump through and do ourusual market wrap Given.
We've just talked about theincredible surge in listings
happening all over the country.
It'd be nice to get a sense ofwhat's actually happening on the
ground here in Sydney.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Yeah, look, the auction clearance rate for the
week was 53%, 1,024 scheduled,24, 242 sold prior, 300 under
the hammer on the day, that's542.
110 were rescheduled.
So they come out of theclearance rate, which is
interesting.
That's a clean 10 percent thereand 42 were sold prior, so that
(27:13):
would take us up to 584 out of900, which gives you a decent
clearance rate from there.
So look, they're pretty solidnumbers.
I heard a real estate agentinterviewed on the radio on
Saturday and he was saying thathe is expecting the market to
slow a little bit from here.
His open house numbers weredown and that kind of correlates
(27:34):
with what we're seeing.
Even those properties and we dohave a few at the moment that
are drawing really, really biginspection numbers, when you get
to the negotiation table withthe buyer, the buyer is very,
very hesitant about committingin this environment.
What else is coming on themarket?
Who else is interested?
What have they offered?
So there is a lot of hesitancyfrom buyers.
(27:56):
There is no doubt that theinterest rate talk, the rising
unemployment talk, has impactedon buyer psychology.
Telstra announced big job cutstoday.
The unemployment rate crept upto 4.1 percent last week.
People who are fairly wellconnected just musing to me.
If you like, the next 12 monthswill be very interesting.
(28:19):
Quote unquote read into thatwhat you will.
So I think people are taking agood look at things at the
moment yeah, it's definitely, um, definitely the feedback I'm
getting as well.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
I I think a lot of people are hopeful, but, uh,
maybe a little bit cautious.
As you mentioned, and you know,only this morning I heard an
interview with an energyspecialist talking about how
energy prices he doesn't thinkthey'll ever come back down in
Australia, how the cost ofliving in certain areas of the
economy will probably neverreturn to what we've seen in the
(28:49):
past, and I think, as aconsumer, that's a daunting
prospect, particularly if you'rethen considering investing in a
massive purchase like aproperty.
I will say, though, on thosenumbers, interestingly, I think
the highest number of under thehammer sales we've had for a
little while yeah, that's rightit shifted above the before so
there's a really high reschedulerate.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
You reschedule it not because you've got too much
interest but because you don'thave enough, of course.
But yeah, um, there were, therewere good numbers under the
hammers, so that probably speaksto the market splitting in half
again, where the more prestigemarkets are experiencing really
good demand.
And putting generic apartmentswith strata issues to the
(29:31):
auction market in thisenvironment is just asking to
pass in.
It's asking for a failedcampaign.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
Yeah, it certainly is .
As always, peter, really greatrecap today.
I think we've covered someimportant topics and I certainly
encourage our listeners.
If you do have any questions,particularly about the data and
data privacy and protections inthe industry, feel free to reach
out.
I'm happy to assist where wecan, as always.
Peter, thanks so much forjoining me today and I look
forward to chatting with younext week.
Likewise, thanks, kieran, andthanks to everyone for listening
(29:59):
.
We look forward to speakingwith you next time.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Thanks for joining us on the Current Market Insights
podcast brought to you by HarrisPartners Real Estate, the
podcast providing real estateinsights you won't find anywhere
else.
All down, all silent, going, going, going, go on son
Congratulations.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Welcome to the Current Market Insights podcast
brought to you by HarrisPartners Real Estate.
Each episode we chat with realestate author and industry
leader, peter O'Malley, todiscuss the current property
market conditions and provideinsights to assist you on your
property journey.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Hello and welcome to another edition of Current
Market Insights.
I'm your host, kieran O'Brien,and with me, as always, is my
co-host and good friend, mrPeter O'Malley.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Peter, hello, g'day, kieran great to see you and
great to be here.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Great to see you, peter.
Another big week.
Well, I say that every week.
Actually, it's always a bigweek for us here in real estate.
It's the industry that neverstops, and I thought we might
talk today on a topic that Ifind really interesting, and I
think some of our listenersmight as well.
I wanted to start off in thedata space.
Everywhere you look now, theworld is talking about AI, it's
(01:04):
talking about data.
It's talking about how we areruled by the information that's
out there.
Anyone who's got kids knowsthat we're concerned about the
amount of data our kids haveaccess to and where it's going,
et cetera.
I would really love to spendjust a little bit of time today
talking about how data works inthe real estate industry, I
guess from an agency perspective, you know, do we use data and
(01:26):
how do we use it?
But also from a clientperspective what data do we
really need and use and what aresome of the implications and
protections in place for clientsout there?
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Kieran, real estate agents have traditionally relied
on advertising over data and,what's really interesting, in
the last six months of theindustry the real estate
industry training, how much ofit is focused on maximizing data
use.
So realestatecom and domain areabsolutely walloping real
(01:58):
estate agents with advertisingcosts and the only solution to
those costs for real estateagencies to better manage their
data which versions of what thatsuccess looks like is selling
properties off market withoutthe intervention of
realestatecom and domain,getting to listing opportunities
before your competitors do,because the data feeds you there
(02:21):
.
You've got to collect the data,nurture the data and harness it
as a real estate agent to beable to get those benefits out
of it.
But I think, more than mostindustries, the real estate
industry has overlooked thepower of data and, as I say,
just in the last six months,every industry trainer that I've
listened to has had a reallydeep focus on data.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
So if we draw back, then let's say you've been in
the industry for quite a longtime.
How has data collection evolvedfor you?
Primarily, I assume you knowhow we get someone's information
now and what their requirementsand interests are.
Around real estate is would beso much easier than it probably
was 25 or 30 years ago.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Well, it's actually easier actually easier 30, 25
years ago, because you could buycomplete lists of every suburb
straight off RP data or councilrecords.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Right.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
And the Privacy Act changed in 2001.
But in 2001, realestatecom andDomain were charging next to
nothing relative to the cost ofprint to real estate agents.
So agents were in thiswonderful space where they lost
the quality data that was beingprovided by RP Data, who are now
(03:35):
CoreLogic at the time.
But they just startedadvertising really, really mad
to compensate for that lack ofdata because, relative to the
cost of print in 2001,realestatecom and domain
represented tremendous value.
Fast forward 23 years.
Realestatecom and domain havegot pretty savage pricing in
(03:55):
place that vendors and realestate agents are increasingly
flinching at, and it's incumbentnow on the real estate agents
to build their own database,collect their own data but then
also work out the best ways tonurture and work that data.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Okay, so you say it was much easier prior to change
to the Privacy Act.
Does that mean that it'simpossible these days to acquire
data in the same way you knowbulk wholesale acquisitions or
it's maybe less readilyavailable since those changes?
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Look, I think you're entering really grey territory
here, where we were told at thetime that you could build your
own database, but selling ofdata was not permissible, like
it was prior to that key date in2001.
So when I first started in realestate, we had perfect records
of every homeowner andessentially nearly all of their
(04:51):
landline contact numbers inevery suburb.
That we wanted to, and it wasjust a matter of it wasn't
digital.
You just go and buy reams andreams of paper from this company
and you sit there and call it.
So clearly.
Data is now digital, which ismuch better for data mining and
cross-referencing.
Where, when I first started inthe industry, data looked like
(05:11):
getting the name and contactdetails of someone on a three by
five card, you still had theRolodex, that's right.
Yeah, the old Rolodex, yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Yeah, look it has.
It certainly has shifted, and Iit's.
One of the reasons I'm sointerested in this topic is I'm
someone who takes my data veryseriously as a consumer.
As a consumer and as aprofessional, I like to think
that I'm obviously very, verymindful of my requirements and
my obligations legislatively,but I'm also very mindful of not
(05:42):
breaching people's requestsaround data use and privacy,
because I also, as a consumer,don't like those things being
breached.
But I think, or I feel likewe've entered a phase where, as
you say, the ability tocross-reference and utilise data
across so many differentspheres means that it's such an
integral part of our day-to-daythat it's inevitable that
(06:02):
people's information is going toend up in the hands of people
that they maybe didn't intend onbeing in originally.
Do you think that's fair?
Speaker 1 (06:09):
oh look, I do.
I think that the the reality isis that technology front runs
government uh, government policyand regulations, if you like
and the government are nowtrying to catch up and put the
genie back in the bottle.
In terms of New South Wales,victor Dominello of the previous
state government was reallyreally focused on this space,
(06:33):
about data privacy.
And why do you need to give areal estate agent your driver's
licence, for example, just tomake an application on a rental
property, and what happens tothat data from there?
Due to the cost of labour, it'sbeen very common in the real
estate industry to outsourceback office work up in the
Philippines.
So someone innocently walksthrough an open house on a
(06:57):
Saturday morning in good faith,gives their contact details,
then hands over their driver'slicence to make an application
on the subject property and,before they know it, an unknown
person in the Philippines hasgot hold of all of that data and
assessing it.
So they're the sorts of thingswhere the marketplace will
always front run the governmentregulations and then it's up to
the government to to wind thatback in.
(07:18):
But as far as all of ourrespective digital footprints,
it's it's it's fair to say thatthere's more data out there than
we would care to imagine.
We've all had the horribleexperience of discussing
something socially around thekitchen table or at a bar or
something, and then, the momentyou open your telephone, open
(07:38):
the internet on your telephone.
What you're talking about isstaring back at you on the
screen, so is very, verypervasive, and, um, I'm not sure
how, um we get around it, otherthan going off the grid
deliberately, you know to, toavoid where data is taking us
and where technology is yeah,look, it's it really interesting
.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
I think, personally, data is so pivotal to everything
we do now that it really wecan't escape.
We, you know, you've, we'vefrankenstein's created the
monster, and, and it's too hardto put it back now, but it is a
situation where we need toembrace the power of data,
because it can enhance our livesin so many ways and the same
things that we might complainabout in one sphere aid us in
(08:19):
another, and and that's just thenature, I think, of this
interconnected world that we've,I guess, looking at this,
though, you as a real estateagent, and, let's say, me as a
consumer, when I come to thatopen home, is there anything I
can do or say?
Can I request not to be, youknow, form part of your database
when I come to a property?
If I wanted to?
Speaker 1 (08:40):
You can request that you don't have your data entered
into a database.
You can request that, eventhough you're handing over your
telephone number for securitypurposes as such, that you not
be requested or marketed to fromthere, and that's a pretty
common request at open houses, Imust say.
I think if you want to getreally deep about data, what
(09:03):
we're seeing across the industryis that there's software
providers that want agents toupload their entire databases
into their programs, and thenthere is they'll never quite
admit, for the admit to thisopenly, but if you do read their
terms and conditions, as I havethe consumer activity is
tracked in the background andthat consumer's activity not
(09:24):
their personal details, but thefact that they could be a hot
prospect is then pushed forwardto other clients who that
consumer may never have spokento.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Yeah, okay, so they're using metrics on people
to determine whether they mightbe in the market for a car or
whether they're.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
You know, in our case whether they're looking for a
particular home for example,Kieran O'Brien owns a house in
Balmain but interestingly, he'sbeen to four open houses in
Glebe.
Therefore, the system suggeststhat if he's looking at four
open houses in Glebe and helives in Balmain, he's what we
now call a potential prospectand he's put forward not with
(10:03):
all of that data explicitly putforward, but he's put forward to
real estate agents as a highquality candidate.
And how did the system identifyKieran O'Brien as a high
quality candidate for sellinghis home?
It's because of the activitythat Kieran undertook and the
system pushed him forward assomeone to keep an eye on.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Yeah right, and you're suggesting that this can
even offer my activity throughto an agency.
I've never engaged with in mylife the fact that you're a hot
prospect, not your specific.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Kieran O'Brien has gone to four open houses in
Glebe.
Yeah so this is why, wheneverI'm working on signing up a
listing, a really, really commoncomment coming from the
prospective seller for the lastfour or five years is I haven't
been speaking to any other realestate agent besides you, Peter,
but I'm suddenly getting allthese calls Now, those words
(10:55):
that I've just told you.
I would hear that every day ofthe week.
Yeah, wow, that's's surprising,I'll be honest uh, yeah, well,
again it comes back to the factthat they're probably surfing
online.
Maybe increase their rate ofopen house attendees,
inspections, um, as they um, youknow, try to track the market
(11:15):
digitally speaking, they'releaving a footprint behind them
as they do their research on theproperty market and never is is
because it would be a breach ofthe privacy act.
Never is one of these softwareproviders going to say to a
rival firm kieran o'brien'slooked at four houses in glebe
and he owns a property inbelmaine.
(11:36):
But they will push it forwardas a potential hot prospect list
and I'm looking at now one ofthose industry prospects and I'm
seeing the names that thepeople are pushing towards me
and I know they're heat mappingthat client's activity.
So they're not explicitlysaying this person is active in
the market, but I know it'simplied.
(11:58):
That's why they're being pushedforward as a recommended core
list today.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Yeah, that's really interesting that you say that
and that you've gotten thatfeedback on the ground, because
I do know CoreLogic, the companyyou mentioned earlier.
They have the ability withintheir system to tell you who is
likely to sell and obviouslythey're basing that on metrics
that we, you know as consumers,probably have no idea how
they're quantifying that, butthey've got an algorithm that
says, based on all of thesecriteria it might be time and
(12:26):
location, the average range ofownership in that particular
suburb for that particular typeof house, could be age,
demographics who knows howthey're getting this, but you
certainly can get access to whatis a predicted list of
potential sellers in a suburband if you've got a database
that has all that information,that really is quite powerful.
I'm interested, too, to getyour thoughts.
Just segueing back to somethingyou mentioned earlier about how
(12:49):
third-party companies areactively seeking your data to
include in their systems.
Would it be fair to say and youknow this might be a bit
cynical of me, but would it befair to say that that only
exponentially increases the riskalso of data loss, data breach?
You know where you've gotmultiple.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Look, uh, we're seeing the health care system go
through this.
We, we know obviously, uh, Ithink, was it.
Did optus have a data breach?
Speaker 3 (13:15):
I know they had optus yeah, they had a massive data
breach they did.
Yeah, I think it was 2 millioncustomers or something.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Yeah, and, as I say, the private health insurance
space has had a number of majorbreaches.
Shudder the day that it doeshappen en masse in the real
estate industry, but I can seeit happening.
I don't know if you've seen iton Netflix, but I'm watching
Ashley Madison at the moment.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
I haven't watched it, but I'm familiar with the
premise, like the story.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
So, for those that don't know what Ashley Madison's
about, that was the websitethat promoted affairs amongst
married people and they hadglobally 37 million people
signed up.
Credit card details, fantasies,desires, the whole works.
Credit card details, fantasies,desires, the whole works.
And they were hacked and given30 days to shut the entire
(14:08):
organisation down or the entiredatabase would be uploaded and
released, and the company didn'tshut down because the founder
felt that was unfair and alsowanted to float the company.
It was taking, I think, inrevenue, a quarter of a million
dollars a day in people buyingcredits to be able to speak to
other people online that wantedan affair and their partners
(14:28):
didn't know about it, and theydumped the whole lot on the
internet.
So Ashley Madison predatedTinder.
Tinder exists because AshleyMadison was essentially
destroyed in that space and, asI say, in the real estate
industry, there's a number ofserious players in the
Australian real estate marketthat are holding untold amounts
(14:49):
of data and heaven help us ifthat is ever breached.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Yeah, well, I'd imagine I've never really given
it much thought, but I wouldimagine some of the very large
franchised groups wouldcentrally hold millions of
people's details right, surely.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
I'm not sure about that because I've never been
part of a franchise, so I onlywant to speak to what I know,
and I'm speaking to the softwareproviders who run I guess you
might call it the digitalnervous system for real estate
agencies.
So real estate agents take alot of data.
It's a big issue, kieran.
We have to do compulsorypersonal development every 12
(15:28):
months, and this year it was amassive focus, as you know,
because we spoke about it at thetime, about data management,
what to do if you do have a databreach, how to prevent a data
breach, and we get it here inthe office.
We've got sensitive documentsaround the office.
We need a process for wheresensitive documents go.
Don't worry about digital online.
You know you might start a, ajunior in the office and they
(15:51):
will the uh, you know they willthe recycling bin out the front
for the council to pick it upunlocked and it's like bring
that bin back in.
You don't know what's in there.
So, as as a, as a principle ofa business that takes a lot of
data, you've got to be vigilantabout where all of this goes,
otherwise you'll, you'll, you'llcome undone in a PR nightmare
(16:13):
oh yeah, look, not just a PRnightmare but, you know, a
legislative one too.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
I think it's important to recognize that real
estate agents are mostly justreal estate agents.
We're not tech expertstypically, and this is a space
that may be foreign to a lot ofpeople, particularly if they've
been in the industry for a longtime.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Yeah well, we can't afford to.
So it's already moving.
The industry is already movingbeyond and we won't talk about
it today.
But the thing I'm gettingschooled up on at the moment is
that we've got to be aware ofmoney laundering and fraud.
We're having more legislationthrust upon us as real estate
agents about who is filteringdirty money through the economy
(16:53):
in the name of real estate,because that's a good way to
clean money with a capital gain,or even a capital loss, for
that matter.
So real estate agents can'tlive in this naive bubble
anymore.
I just sell houses.
You're exposed to sophisticatedcriminal networks that are
washing money, particularly in,I would say, the upper ends of
(17:14):
the Sydney and Melbourneproperty markets.
And no matter where you are inthe country, if you're standing
at an open house and taking datafrom people and then asking for
their driver's license and acopy of their council rates, etc
.
Etc.
You're taking serious personaldetails from people.
You you better have a processto to protect that and destroy
(17:34):
that when you don't need it yeah, absolutely it's.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
It's incumbent on all of us to make sure that we are
skilled up in the space and Icertainly, as we close the topic
, I encourage anyone out today,written by PropTrack, which is
an arm of realestatecom it'stheir research and sort of you
(18:07):
know reporting arm and theymentioned that April saw a
pretty big surge in listings andthey said that you know this
was a massive uptick in numberof listings on the market.
I'm really interested to getyour thoughts, peter, given that
we talk week after week aboutthe current market, what the
listing volumes look like, howthe market's faring.
I wouldn't have thought thatApril would be such a strong
(18:31):
resurgence.
Based on the article, you'd getthe impression that we were
facing another boom.
I'm interested is it a boom oris it a normal bounce after a
quiet period?
Speaker 1 (18:40):
That was a national number, wasn't?
Speaker 3 (18:41):
it Correct yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
So, look, I can't speak for the national market
because I haven't taken a lookat it, but when I do look at the
numbers here in Sydney, therewas a decline.
So I think the right responseto the points that you've just
raised there is talking aboutthe Australian property market.
As one is mistaken, there canbe booms and depressions going
(19:07):
on at the same time across thecountry.
Can I say that there can alsobe booms and depressed segments
of the market in the same city.
So at the moment, there's someproperties on the market not
with us, but there's someproperties on the market locally
where they're essentially onthe market for the same price
that the people paid in 2019.
(19:27):
Yeah well, and then there'sothers that have bought in 2020,
for example, and they're on themarket for 30 or 40% higher.
Now the common denominatorthere is, as we've discussed a
lot in the last six months, ittends to be the higher end of
the market.
That's charging and the breadand butter stuff that's getting
knocked around at the moment.
But generic reporting onproperty prices, about
(19:49):
Australian listings, australianhouse prices, is not worth the
paper it's written on.
And can I also say that, in myview, any commentary around
dwellings is actually not worththe paper it's written on either
.
You must always itemise out thedifference between how house
prices are performing and howapartments are performing,
(20:09):
because rarely do they operatein sync.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
I'm glad you mentioned that it's not worth
the paper it's printed on,because, really, what I wanted
to get, the crux of here, isthis is not an uncommon article.
Right Every other day you canread something about a boom here
, a boom there.
This is crazy, you know.
Results are off the charts,it's all it seems to me.
It's a hyperbolic space.
It's always the extreme, oneend or the other, it's chaos or
(20:35):
it's booming.
What role do you thinkindividual agents slash,
agencies, slash the industry atlarge play in supporting this
narrative?
And and I guess what I'm askingis do you think agencies or or
particular agents are engagingin paid articles in the and I
(20:57):
say not ads, because ads arequite obvious but paying for the
sake of getting an article outthere to pump a section of the
market that's going to benefitwhat?
Speaker 1 (21:05):
they work in.
Well, if that is happening, thejournalists need to be really,
really careful if there's nodisclosure there.
I've seen an increase of thetype of article that you read
and you think you're reading anews article and then there's a
disclaimer at some stage in inthe article that says this is
paid content I feel like I readevery other day about a buyer's
(21:28):
agent's success story.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
right, that's what made me think of this topic is
you know, you read, this personearning 35 000 a year bought 10
investments.
Like, oh gosh, that'sinteresting.
And I never go into thatthinking, wow, I'm going to get
rich.
I just read them out ofinterest.
And it's always this person nowruns X buyer's agency here or
whatever.
And this is clearly paidcontent.
And I wonder, if there is somuch hyperbolic reporting in the
(21:51):
space, what percentage can beviewed as actual news?
And that's a hard question, Iguess.
But you know, are we startingto get to a point where it's no
longer news reporting, it'spurely… Self-interest,
self-interest, there's nointerest like self-interest,
that's right.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Oh look, if you want to know how good a real estate
agent is, just ask them andthey'll spend the next….
Or look at the size of theirsign.
Right, yeah, that's it.
They'll take the next threehours explaining how good they
are and how well they've donefor their clients, which is fair
enough.
It's a very, very competitiveindustry.
I've never played that game.
(22:26):
And the reason I've neverplayed that game, Kieran, is
that I've seen as many consumerslose on real estate as I have
that have outperformed themarket.
The majority of people ridewith the market and the market
has rewarded buy and holdproperty owners very, very well
over the last 40 years, as weknow in Australia.
(22:48):
So whether you're an investor,a buy and hold investor, or
whether you bought your house inthe 1980s for $120,000.
You still own it today.
It's probably worth over $2million tax-free and all you've
ever done is maintain it, so tospeak.
Warren Buffett would be veryproud Peter.
Yeah, that's right.
And someone said to him whatwas Buffett's line, how do you
(23:12):
get rich?
And he said you get rich slowly.
And he said well, why don'tmore people do it?
And he said because I don'tlike the slowly part, something
along those lines yeah, spot on.
And so, yes, there are peoplethat win big on the property
market.
Let's not kid ourselves.
Their timing's perfect.
What I can say about a lot ofthose people is they stumble
into it.
I actually have not met in my25 years of selling real estate
(23:41):
in the inner west.
I have not seen a developer, aflipper, a speculator that has
constantly outperformed themarket and been able to identify
and trade off opportunitiesthat others have missed.
Worse than that, I have seenpeople outperform the market two
or three transactions in a rowand they start thinking they
walk on water and, like agambler at the table, the next
(24:02):
transaction they do goes wrongand it wipes out all the gains.
And I some names jump into mymind when I think about those
people and I'm not happy thatthat's happened to them.
But they got ahead ofthemselves, thought they had the
game iced and they knew how tooutperform the market on a
continual basis.
(24:23):
And I can tell you, whenthey're doing that final
transaction that's wiped out allof the previous gains because
they've gone loud and large intoit.
It's a very, very painful placeto be watching it all happen.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Yeah, really interesting, peter.
I think it is.
For me, it is an industry thattrades on success, as you say,
and you know that's a far morecompelling story than the one
that doesn't work.
But I often wonder, you know,it must be really hard for
people that aren't in theindustry to keep a real good
track of what's actuallyhappening out there, given that
(24:58):
the narrative is so skewed mostof the time.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Oh look, it is.
If I can go to a text messagethat I got today.
I wasn't going to mention this,but you've touched on this
topic.
Hi, peter, hope you're well.
I'm looking at using thisproperty buying company to aid
me in getting multipleinvestment properties behind me.
The company's called let's justcall it XYZ, and it's headed by
a guy called, who I won'tmention.
(25:22):
He's doing pretty well forhimself with over 230 properties
in his own portfolio.
I know you're busy, but seewhat you think when you get a
chance, please.
I've done a good bit ofresearch and they seem like the
real deal, with good reviews.
Reviews are probably written byour friend's mother.
But there you go, and thenwe're catching up on Thursday
(25:42):
night.
So the first part of Thursdaynight will be saving my friend
from making a massive mistake byinvesting with this buyer's
agency firm.
If it is so profitable, why arethese people out selling
courses and advice to thegeneral public?
Why aren't they just continuingto expand and explode the way
(26:04):
that they claim?
Speaker 3 (26:05):
Well, yeah, he'd have 2,300 properties instead of 230
if that was the way to go.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
And the fellow in question here is not the only
one that we've seen.
He's been around for a littlewhile now.
He's drawn a little bit ofpress.
There's others that have doneit as well, and they've all end
up doing the same thing.
They all end up selling courses, trying to tell mum and dad,
retail investors, how they canget rich from property.
You can't get rich quickly fromproperty unless you're
(26:31):
extremely lucky, but you can gobroke quickly.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
Yeah, that's really sage advice.
Look as we move towards awrap-up tonight, peter, yeah,
we'll jump through and do ourusual market wrap Given.
We've just talked about theincredible surge in listings
happening all over the country.
It'd be nice to get a sense ofwhat's actually happening on the
ground here in Sydney.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Yeah, look, the auction clearance rate for the
week was 53%, 1,024 scheduled,24, 242 sold prior, 300 under
the hammer on the day, that's542.
110 were rescheduled.
So they come out of theclearance rate, which is
interesting.
That's a clean 10 percent thereand 42 were sold prior, so that
(27:13):
would take us up to 584 out of900, which gives you a decent
clearance rate from there.
So look, they're pretty solidnumbers.
I heard a real estate agentinterviewed on the radio on
Saturday and he was saying thathe is expecting the market to
slow a little bit from here.
His open house numbers weredown and that kind of correlates
(27:34):
with what we're seeing.
Even those properties and we dohave a few at the moment that
are drawing really, really biginspection numbers, when you get
to the negotiation table withthe buyer, the buyer is very,
very hesitant about committingin this environment.
What else is coming on themarket?
Who else is interested?
What have they offered?
So there is a lot of hesitancyfrom buyers.
(27:56):
There is no doubt that theinterest rate talk, the rising
unemployment talk, has impactedon buyer psychology.
Telstra announced big job cutstoday.
The unemployment rate crept upto 4.1 percent last week.
People who are fairly wellconnected just musing to me.
If you like, the next 12 monthswill be very interesting.
(28:19):
Quote unquote read into thatwhat you will.
So I think people are taking agood look at things at the
moment yeah, it's definitely, um, definitely the feedback I'm
getting as well.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
I I think a lot of people are hopeful, but, uh,
maybe a little bit cautious.
As you mentioned, and you know,only this morning I heard an
interview with an energyspecialist talking about how
energy prices he doesn't thinkthey'll ever come back down in
Australia, how the cost ofliving in certain areas of the
economy will probably neverreturn to what we've seen in the
(28:49):
past, and I think, as aconsumer, that's a daunting
prospect, particularly if you'rethen considering investing in a
massive purchase like aproperty.
I will say, though, on thosenumbers, interestingly, I think
the highest number of under thehammer sales we've had for a
little while yeah, that's rightit shifted above the before so
there's a really high reschedulerate.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
You reschedule it not because you've got too much
interest but because you don'thave enough, of course.
But yeah, um, there were, therewere good numbers under the
hammers, so that probably speaksto the market splitting in half
again, where the more prestigemarkets are experiencing really
good demand.
And putting generic apartmentswith strata issues to the
(29:31):
auction market in thisenvironment is just asking to
pass in.
It's asking for a failedcampaign.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
Yeah, it certainly is .
As always, peter, really greatrecap today.
I think we've covered someimportant topics and I certainly
encourage our listeners.
If you do have any questions,particularly about the data and
data privacy and protections inthe industry, feel free to reach
out.
I'm happy to assist where wecan, as always.
Peter, thanks so much forjoining me today and I look
forward to chatting with younext week.
Likewise, thanks, kieran, andthanks to everyone for listening
(29:59):
.
We look forward to speakingwith you next time.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Thanks for joining us on the Current Market Insights
podcast brought to you by HarrisPartners Real Estate, the
podcast providing real estateinsights you won't find anywhere
else.
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