As 2018 draws to a close, I thought I’d reflect on this year and cast an eye on what 2019 might bring us.
For us at ‘Innov8 Property’ and ‘The Michael Spillane Team’, we’ve had a huge year (in fact, our biggest year ever in terms of our results).
It’s no secret that the addition of Tina Chun to our team has made a huge difference and any of our clients that have dealt with her would understand why – she’s incredibly passionate, extremely hard working and offers the highest level of customer service.
For Simon, Tom and I, we’ve worked tirelessly this year and to be honest, we can’t wait for a couple of days off to put our feet up and enjoy the odd cold beer or two.
In truth, we’ve overcome more obstacles in bringing sales from contract to settlement and whether it be finance, building and pest issues or simply all parties agreeing on terms and conditions in a contract, it’s only a minority of sales that proceed to settlement without any fuss…but today, that’s the world we now live in.
You’d be amazed to see some of the lengths we’ve gone to this year just to ensure that properties settle.
As the year moves towards a close, there’s no question that there’s an uneasy feeling in the air of what is to come in 2019 and with a Federal Election looming (and possible proposed changes to Tax concessions on Negative Gearing of properties), toughening measures of the banks’ lending money due to the Royal commission and possible interest rate rises, the next twelve months could be very interesting times indeed!
As I’ve discussed in recent weeks, I don’t believe that we’ll be as affected as Sydney or Melbourne but I’m quite confident that we’ll certainly see some pain ahead.
On a personal note, we’re excited that Simon and his partner Megon were engaged this year (I often joke that he better marry her quickly since he’s punching well above his weight and perhaps he’s listening as their wedding is in April 2019).
Erin and I celebrated the birth of our baby boy Hunter in April this year and it goes without saying that this is one of the greatest moments of my life!
So we all worked very hard, Tina joined us (and Richard her husband has barely seen her since although they do enjoy a late night spa and a drink with alarming regularity), Tom continued his success in car racing and bringing up his little boy Preston with Brooke, Simon hit the gym hard and put on some serious size and I played my first interstate indoor cricket tournament and improved my game (until a badly broken finger and then a badly broken collarbone) put me out of action for 3 months and I’ve only just been given the doctor’s “all clear” to return to playing sport in January.
To be frank, I don’t know how we actually managed in September and October as I was unable to drive for 6 weeks and had to rely on Erin and my team to drive me everywhere including open homes…and as Murphy’s Law would have it, the second I injured myself, our business became twice as busy compared to normal – to Erin, Simon, Tina and Tom – for this, I am eternally thankful to you all! I promise to look after myself a little better next year!
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Richard, Brooke, Megon and Erin for the sacrifices you all make by letting the four of us run around and work long and unpredictable hours in doing what we love to do so much – we’d be lost without you all!
So lets’ gaze into the crystal ball and I’ll share with you what I believe will happen in 2019 (and you can hold me accountable in December next year to my predictions)…
- Brisbane to experience some slight median price property reductions (in the order of 2-3%)
- A very slow market in March/ April as we move towards a Federal Election)
- The unit and townhouse market continuing to struggle but we’ll begin to see improvement towards the end of 2019 in this sector)
- A reduction in the number of real estate agents in Queensland by approximately 3000 (there are reasons for this that I’ll share with you in January)
- The ‘Big Four’ banks will start to loosen their lending procedures towards the end of 2019 as shareholders become agitated with diminishing profits
- Non-conforming lenders will take a larger slice of the loans market albeit with higher interest rates
- Official Interest rates to remain virtually unchanged for the entirety of 2019 although the banks will raise their own rates in order to counter-act decreasing profits
- A trend of real estate agencies starting to abandon the franchise model and operate as independent agencies (again, I’ll share more with you in January on why I think this will happen)
- An investigation into the operation of ‘Body Corporates’ and a major crackdown on their policies and procedures (you guessed it – I’ll share with you more on this next year)
- Parramatta to break their 33-year drought and finally win the NRL Premiership
OK I admit it – one of these ten predictions are more of a ‘hope’ than an ‘expectation’…. But I have good reason to think that they’ll be an enquiry into the dealings of Body Corporates! 😊
We’ll take a break from this blog for next week but will be back on Wednesday January 2nd but remember that ‘The Michael Spillane Team’ is working right through the Christmas break with Christmas Day and Boxing Day being the only days that we won’t be answering our phones or e-mails.
Finally, we’d like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and incredibly prosperous New Year in 2019…and we hope you all enjoy some quality time with your families and friends over this period!
Thank you all for reading my blogs this year and I really appreciate all the e-mails, phone calls, texts and chats at open homes I have with you when you tell me that you love reading them – it means the world to me!)
Again, have a fabulous Christmas and we’ll see you all again in 2019!