How much time are you spending on property research?
As a property investor, a large portion of your time, energy and thoughts probably go towards researching the property market. Whether you're looking to grow your portfolio or sitting tight in the current market, it's clear Australians love spending time researching property. According to new research by HSBC, Australians spend around 2.5 hours per week researching the property market. This research includes property sales websites, reading property news and attending property inspections.
Confirming that Australians love to research property, the 2.5 hours per week on average that people are spending doing property research also outweigh some of the other activities a lot of us do throughout the week. For example, Australians spend an average of 1.08 hours at the gym and 0.88 hours talking with their parents.
Compared to the global average of 3.5 hours per week for property research, this indicates that Australia's fixation with property is prevailing despite softening market conditions. On the extreme end, the United Arab Emirates and the United States of America are spending the most time researching property at 6.6 hours and 4.95 hours respectively each week.
Amongst the property research that Australians regularly complete, checking their home values regularly is common. In HSBC's research, the company found that 23% of Australians check how much their property is worth every three months.
Beyond the people averaging 3.5 hours of property research per month globally are the "extreme house hunters." This group made up 6% of HSBC's study spending more than seven hours per week studying and researching property. Amongst this group, 19% of people flagged that they are more likely to delay life stages like starting a family in favour of buying a property.
According to the research, two of the biggest deal breakers for Australians looking to buy are bad neighbours and rumours that a property is haunted. Bad neighbours would be a turn-off for 46% of buyers, while an allegedly haunted property would turn-off 21% of buyers.
The research by HSBC demonstrates that while Australia's housing market has cooled over the last 12 months, the Australian population are still largely motivated to buy. And while the property market isn't expected to bounce back in 2019, it's a positive sign that more buyers in the market will be a factor that could contribute to a recovery in the property market and drive prices up again in the future.
Disclaimer: The contents do not constitute legal advice, are not intended to be a substitute for legal advice and should not be relied upon as such. You should seek legal advice or other professional advice in relation to any particular matters you or your organisation may have.
