Tips for Home Buyers/Sellers

As part of the show we have created a series of tips to provide practical help for home buyers and sellers.

The latest tip is shown on this page and is updated regularly.

If you would like to have access to the whole series and have the latest tips emailed to you automatically, just send us your name and email address via the form below.

Latest Tip - “First home buyers could lead us out!”

Despite other evidence showing just how tough it is to sell a property today because of a lack of buyer confidence, the latest figures showing First Home Buyer activity indicate that there is still confidence in the market.

With FHB grants from the Federal Government increased threefold, from $7,000 to $21,000 for new house land package buyers and doubled for established houses, the increase in funding for First Home Buyers has increased from about 17% in March to an estimated 20 or even 25% of all properties sold.

There is also an indication that the Federal Government's incentive for FHB is working because national lender, Mortgage Choice says its website attracted a 577% leap in enquiry forms completed by first homebuyers in the week following the announcement of increases in October and St George Bank is experiencing similar results according to its loans division.

Across Australia, the average first home buyer loan sits at $260,900. With the government's $14,000 first home buyers grant and the fact that purchasers will generally need a deposit of 10%, the average first home buyer is in a position to purchase a property priced at $300,900 according to RP Data in it's latest Property Pulse Report. Although all capital cities have a median dwelling value which is above this figure, there are still many of opportunities to purchase at this price across individual suburbs in each capital.

Across each state, the average first home buyer loan size is much greater during September 2008 than it was at the same time last year. Increases have been highest in South Australia 12.6%, then Queensland at 12.4%, Victoria an increase of 10.7%, the ACT 2.1% and Tasmania 5.7%.

These results indicate that first home buyer confidence is building but it is important to remember that across Australia total housing finance commitments are down and first home buyers are having to borrow more money to purchase their home.

The results of RP Data's research highlights that affordability constraints are heavily influencing buyer decisions, which means buying in the outer lying areas where infrastructure can be weak. Alternatively, many first home buyers are choosing to purchase higher density dwellings located closer to the city, instead of houses.  These properties are well located, with an abundance of amenities and close to working nodes.