Geraldton 
Millennials, also referred to as Generation Y or those born after the early 1980s, are about to become a force to be reckoned with in the Australia property market. Enter the Millennial homebuyer.
The older members of Gen Y are now entering their 30s and starting to gain financial stability. Those who have spent their 20s saving and have stable careers will be looking at their property options and asking if they should invest or buy a home to set themselves up for the future.
Domain estimates that those in the 18 – 35 age range will represent 43% of buyers in the next three years, and it probably won’t be too much longer until this generation takes over others as the most dominant force in the Australian property market.
The Millennial homebuyer will face obstacles that their parent’s generation didn’t, such as an unstable economy, high student debts, competitive job markets and the unfortunate fact that in some states, property values are currently outpacing wages.
In the CoreLogic July Home Value Index, head of research Tim Lawless noted that the property growth trend rate is tracking considerably faster than income growth, resulting in a deterioration of housing affordability.
He presented figures from the Australian National University, estimating that Sydney’s household incomes have grown by approximately 4.5 per cent per annum since June 2012 while dwelling values are up 12.1 per cent per annum.
Historically low interest rates might be somewhat of a silver lining to the issue of affordability, but they aren’t entirely good news for prospective buyers.
Low interest rates come as somewhat of a double-edged sword, making it easier once you have a home to pay off, but harder to earn savings when you’re trying to get a deposit together.
But it’s not all bad news for the younger generation. There are some perks to buying property in 2016 and one of the major ones is access to information and property data.
While baby boomers had to search through newspapers and posters on an agency’s windows, current buyers have the luxury of looking for properties all over the country from the comfort of their living room, or anywhere else they happen to be.
The Millennial homebuyer can also look up a property’s past sales or rental history, research everything there is to know about the local area such as the average incomes of people that live there, or how they travel to work, if they have any questions about the property market they can get them answered on real estate forums like PropertyChat or Whirlpool.
Everything about buying a property is a lot more transparent now compared to what it used to be, so sellers can’t try to omit details in property advertisements and expect to get away with it.
Modern buyers are savvy, they have grown up with technology and they will want to find out as much about a property as they can before they consider making a purchase.
This means that those selling will need to consider what younger buyers are looking for and find ways to connect with them when selling. With so many options, sellers will need to work hard to stand out and will need to pay attention to the way they market their property to maximise its buyer appeal.
Those looking to appeal to the incoming wave of millennial buyers should ensure they use professional photos in their listing and consider using staging services to make a property look as appealing as possible.
