Winter didn’t just roll into the Top End — it unpacked, turned off the furnace and swallowed the keys. Vendors holding out and buyers wrapped in caution. Deals? Scarce. Momentum? MIA. You’d hear more action from a mothballed fax machine.
The few deals getting done are by those who understand this market doesn’t reward daydreams. The rest? Standing very still, hoping for a Spring miracle.
The Price of Reality: The agent said what?
The market’s not dead — but it knows what to pay.
Spring Bridesmaids in Waiting
You can’t blame vendors for delaying decisions while teams of hopefuls are still brushing their hair and waiting by the aisle:
- 47 Murphy St, South Yarra
- 58 Kooyong Rd, Armadale
- 22 Airlie Street, South Yarra
- 5 Verdant Ave, Toorak
- 12 Yarradale Rd, South Yarra
- 53-57 Park St, South Yarra
- 2A Como Ave, South Yarra
- 20 Douglas Street, Toorak
- 4 Linlithgow Rd, Toorak
- 205 Kooyong Rd, Toorak
- 8 Lansell Rd, Toorak
- 28 Marne St, South Yarra
- 84 West Toorak Rd, South Yarra
- 56 Hopetoun Rd, Toorak
- 3-4 Montrose Crt, Toorak
- 2 Lisbuoy Crt, Toorak
- 62 Clendon Rd, Toorak
That’s just what’s advertised. There’s a chorus line hiding under the doona.
Buyer’s Market… In Theory
Spring should be for buyers. Right now, it’s more like a glacier. The question is when it thaws — and who’ll be left standing when it does.
Beach House Blues
Coastal property is getting the worst of it. Land tax has crushed the cheeky offer. Deceased estates going begging. Carnage. Wreckage. All silence and sand.
Trend Watch: North
Buyers are side-stepping our peninsulas and opting for northern apartments and giving land tax a hug and a kiss and a goodbye. Why drive when the savings will charter you a private jet?
Market Freezes, Industry Fidgets
As the market slumbers, agents reshuffle their deck chairs. Some are rising, still doing deals. Others have drifted into irrelevance.
Pinocchio? Rumour has it he’s gone into Property Management. Makes sense — fiction is his strong suit.
Sydney vs Melbourne: Don’t Ask
Sydney’s got hype, activity, and buyers. Melbourne? Struggling to give vendors a reason to lift the hammer.
“Expat buyer”? What’s that?
Boom Boom Boom to Gloom Gloom Gloom
The Spring surge everyone is hoping for is looking more like a long sigh and a quiet walk home.
Keep warm.
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The Top End Market? The Usual
We’ve been saying it since 1997. At the top end, there is no market. Every home is unique. Every home is its own market.
Each begins with its fundamentals: The place, the home, the demand. No advocate or agent can change those. As a buyer or seller, what can change is the story that is told.
Sellers’ stories are in every real estate ad and every nudge, wink and trust me from an agent.
Advocates’ stories are, or should be, re-framing sellers’ understanding of what they have to sell. The reality check they need and the emotional persuasion to accept it.
It’s there that agreement is reached.
It’s there that two winners are born.