This years financial end preceded the decision by the Reserve Bank of Australia’s board to hold the cash rate at its current record low of 1.5 per cent, where is has been now for 21 successive announcements. The previous record was in 1995-1996, where it remained unchanged for 17 RBA meetings.
The housing market, which we all recognise as something to be viewed in a long-term perspective, is calming; and the RBA is unlikely to want to do anything dramatic with interest rates.
At the same time every year, the pattern of ramped-up retail sales and tax tips is replicated around the nation. Once upon a time, the Boxing Day sales were the biggest thing on the retail calendar but I think the whole end of financial year theme may now out-shop Christmas!
Has the real estate market been caught up in all the hype, I wonder?
Everyone has a different take on end-of-financial-year. It can be a good chance to stop and reflect on the financial year that’s passed – and the half-calendar year – and what it has meant for property.
What concerns me though are the mumblings and rumblings about lack of buyers, a market gone quiet, sellers holding off on taking their property to the market, investors sitting on their hands, etc, etc
It’s beginning to sound a lot like Christmas!
Saying that the market goes quiet around end of financial year may be just an easy throw-away line; but the trouble is, when you say it or hear it 100 times, you might come to believe it.
Sometimes saying and doing out of habit can be positive, but sometimes the repercussions are negative. Sometime the reality you create out of your own expectations, can be negative.
We see it every Christmas. There are the agents who take the foot off the pedal. As a result, their business may falter in that period. Perhaps there appear to be less listings to be had, less buyers calling, and so on. Wasn’t this exactly what they said would happen… the quiet market!
They are suddenly seeing the very thoughts they had about the market coming to life around them.
Thinking of a certain outcome may have the consequence of that outcome becoming reality. If you think ‘nothing happens over end-of-financial-year’, for example, then there is a very strong possibility that nothing may happen!
However, properties still sell around the end of financial year. Plenty of buyers and sellers choose to relocate, to change jobs, to take holidays and home hunt… around this time.
Don’t comply with what may accepted expectations. It is up to you to set the rules.
That said, if an agent with a clear business plan decides, in January, that they will take a two-week break at end-of-financial year, then that is fine. That down time has been planned for, and is part of a clear strategy for the agent to refuel and refresh at a time they determine works in their particular market.
That is entirely different to the agent who is just going along with the crowd, those naysayers with the ‘market dies at EOFY’ sentiments. My message to this agent might be: ramp up your activity and service, and the market will come with you.
At the franchisor level, we are so conscious of both the calendar year and financial year changeovers. These are vitally important times for planning at all levels of business. Our strategic meetings at the end of a financial year are possibly our most important, and represent a critical time when we make real headway into the business of the coming 12 months.
This should be the same for agents and real estate business owners.
If other agents are convinced that their market goes quiet around EOFY and respond accordingly, you don’t have to follow suite.
If your competition think this way, let them. Always remember, you set the rules.
