Developers report a rise in new home inquiries amid coronavirus restrictions

Isolation has put property at the front of people’s minds with developers reporting a rising rate of new home inquiries.

Home buyers are making virtual inspections of new homes and visiting property websites in increased numbers, despite the limitations imposed by coronavirus, according to developers and project marketers.

Sydney-based volume builder Rawson Homes recorded a rise in both inquiries and the number of deposits it received for new homes in the past two weeks.

“The past two weeks have been above average and I would say that is surprising,” said Doug Phillips, Rawson Homes executive general manager sales and marketing.

“That could be customers anticipating there might be a full shutdown and rushing in to get the deposits down and get their process moving, or it could be a sign that we’re really buoyant and that everyone’s happy to move into a digital world.”

The pandemic has thrown uncertainty over some segments of the property market, but Nando Pellicano, managing director of property and construction company Pellicano builders, said residential was comparatively unscathed.

“To be honest, residential is the least affected out of the sectors we’re in and we’re in hotels, retail, commercial and industrial,” he said.

“What I mean by that is we’re still seeing good inquiry.”

Interest is steady in two of the company’s apartment projects in Brisbane and Melbourne, but only time will tell if preliminary inquiries become more than mild interest.

“We need to see whether it converts to them being confident enough to buy and we’ll know in the next few weeks whether that eventuates or not,” Pellicano said.

“Because everything changes day by day, until people start to see some stability or some flattening of the curve, that’s when they will get the confidence to know.”

Life took a positive step forward for first-home buyers Sam Gafsi and Virginia Cheong when they moved into their new one-bedroom apartment at the Pavilions development by Mirvac at Sydney Olympic Park.

The couple had been living with Cheong’s parents for the past three years to save money and nothing, not even COVID-19, was going to stop them from moving in.

“Picking up the keys to our new home was the only thing keeping us going,” said Gafsi.

“Otherwise everything else is very stressful. But knowing you have a home that is so clean and so new and finally having our own things around us, I feel right at home immediately.”

Mirvac has also reported an upturn in customer interest with a 20 per cent boost in website traffic in the past fortnight. Isolation measures were the likely reason why, said Toby Long, Mirvac’s general manager of residential development in NSW.

“Whether it’s because people are at home or whether it’s because they want an upgrade, we actually have a much greater number of people on our website and a 150 per cent increase in people inquiring about Crest, a land development in Gledswood Hills,” he said.

“I suppose at these times people reflect about the lifestyle they want and where they’re at.”

Daniel Cashen, director of Knight Frank Victoria, said while he was close to sealing a sale on a multimillion-dollar apartment on St Kilda Road, most clients were not ready to finalise deals until stability was in sight.

“We’ve certainly seen steady inquiry coming through over the past three weeks and what I’ve personally seen is that of the buyers we’re talking to, a lot of them are still wanting to engage, they’re still wanting to purchase, downsize or whatever it might be, but not probably going to put pen to paper until things start to de-escalate from the environment we’re in now.”