Residential property investors are back, and back in a big way, lured back into the market by higher prices and improved cash flow.
Buyers’ agents are being swamped by investors, and Victor Kumar from Right Property Group said it has become hard to get deals for all his clients.
“Everyone’s starting to jump on the bandwagon because interest rates are so low and they’re not travelling overseas, so they have a lot of cash left over and want to use it to buy an investment property,” he told Australian Financial Review.
“We have 75 clients that we’re currently sourcing properties for, and we’re struggling to secure properties at the moment, because homes are selling so fast and prices are moving so quickly.
“We have to turn away quite a lot of clients.”
Up in Sydney in it’s a similar story, with HighSpec Properties’ Amanda Gould telling AFR investor clients have been busier in the last two weeks than over the whole of the last year.
“We’re definitely getting a lot of inquiries from investors, who now make up about 30 per cent of our clients,” she said.
The value of investor lending across the country was up 12.7 per cent for the month of March, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, with the total of $7.8 billion being the highest since the last property boom in 2017.
Investor share of the property market has now jumped to nearly 22 per cent.
Buyers’ agent Zoran Solano is based in Brisbane and told AFR investor activity had been on the up since the end of last year.
“We’re seeing a lot of new investors who have built a lot of equity from their homes and are now looking to access it to invest,” he said.
“Most are focusing on houses, but those with limited budgets are also looking into units closer to the CBD.”
