Opportunities come for those who wait?

Really? I've heard that saying before, but it never really registered to me how untrue that is when it comes to property specifically.

The thing is, generally the price of property is going up, and continues to go up. Sure, the ascending prices graph may flatten out at times, due to any number of individual circumstances but in reality, even suburbs that had serious issues years ago can go on to become "in demand" areas. As an example, Collingwood Park in Queensland 4301.

https://www.finni.com.au/fast-50-uncovers-opportunity-hiding-in-leafy-collingwood-park/

Now, I know Collingwood Park quite well. I bought my first home there in 2007 and kept it until 2013 (when I made a significant loss, but that's another blog).

This is the house that I bought in 2007.

The house I bought was a conventional hipped roof, brick clad 3 bed home on the lower side of the road. That house was a good solid house, built at a time where builders were generally very good at what they did (another blog there too), but Collingwood Park was located over mines. One day, the support structures gave way and a mine collapsed under Duncan Street (2008). I can't recall the details of the council response, but property prices in the area plummeted. A number of the effected houses were knocked down and those owners experienced significant financial hardship.

The home values for Collingwood Park had just started to recover in 2011 when the Brisbane floods hit, and the main road in was under water and the residents were isolated. I was one of those residents and my partner at the time was 6 months pregnant with our child.

The point is, people forget. They forget for lots of reasons, but they forget the issues and are subject to FOMO (fear of missing out) and, as a result, buy on emotion which often becomes a problem later.

I will never forget, because our lives were challenging for the week of the floods, but other people will and it won't stop them for snapping up "a bargain" or trying to be on the "next surge" of capital growth. These issues have largely been perpetuated by the media. They use language of fear to motivate people into spending.

But unfortunately, that culture won't change until we, as a community, change that culture. We are predominantly self-serving as a community because we don't want our house price to drop - that can happen to someone else!

So, in conclusion, change the culture, or get into the property market if you can at your earliest but avoid emotional purchases. Generally, it will not get easier to buy a home and wages will not catch up with the price growth so it will never be cheaper than now. It's the same with renovating (but that's another blog entry)

Signing off,

Revell