The simple answer to this question is no.
My usual advice to sellers and buyers asking if now is a good time, as I was asked this week, is “Sell when you are ready to sell” or “Buy when you are ready to buy”.
It takes an enormous amount of good fortune and a fully working crystal ball to buy and sell at the so-called “right time”.
Last month I spoke about property price stats and how you have to understand what they actually mean and if they are relevant or not.
Another stat that is also misunderstood is when the “peak” or “bottom” of the market was.
The key aspect here is understanding the recorded sales date when the property actually transferred versus the real-time sales date on actual signature of the sale.
For example, if the famous 2007 peak is looked at, people would say it was in the middle to the end of that year around September/October as that was the date the property transfers went through.
However, if you ask any agent operating in the market at that time, they will tell you the peak of the market was in the latter part of 2006 to March 2007, as this is when buyers were actually making offers and committing to purchasing.
The delay in going through to transfer shows a recorded peak some 6 months later, so any seller suddenly wanting to benefit from that frothy market in September 2007 had already missed the real peak and the decline was already on the way.
That was an extraordinary time, not a situation we have today.
If, however, you want to at least try and give timing the market a go, your agent will be the only person who knows what is happening in the market today.
They will be seeing first-hand the buyer activity levels, subtle changing of stock numbers and have a good general gut feeling of what is happening out there.
A few examples of a busy market will be: properties selling quickly, often before they have even been able to list; multiple offers on properties; back up offers on properties (always a tell-tale sign of an active market); ability to sell the same property that an agent sold 6 months ago for an increased price; and, properties that have been on the market for a long time that suddenly sell and get the asking price.
Indeed, we sold a house this year that had been on and off the market for 5 years with very few bites, which suddenly became one of the most popular properties on the books!
My advice remains the same: transact when you are ready to.
Property is a long-term investment and for the majority of the time, a few months here or there is not going to make much difference when you come to sell years later.
The danger of waiting, taking a risk and potentially getting it wrong is a harder pill to swallow.
