In the last year, the property market has been tough. It’s taken some time for home buyers to feel the full effect of interest rate rises, and with construction companies reeling from the effects of labour shortages and supply chain issues, the uncertainty has left many property developers suffering a period of reduced sales and lesser interest.
However, in the past few weeks market activity has been positive as prospecting homeowners and investors feel more confident in the market and their ability to manage interest increases to start taking advantage of opportunities again.
Additionally, with announcements of a planned increase in immigration in the near future, demand for housing is likely to surge along with it.
Off the plan is a market within a market, so while demand for higher priced assets may take longer to increase in the same fashion, off the plan may become more appealing for a large portion of people who may need to reassess their borrowing power, as well as for investors (both local and international) in high demand rental localities and first-home buyers.
What does this mean for property developers and project marketing teams? Well, it means there are buyers out there, and they will soon multiply, creating a shift in demand for existing and planned projects. Recent data shows new data shows the number of active homebuyers is high across most areas, in some places more than before the pandemic boom began.
Technology can be an important tool when it comes to managing demand, expanding buyer reach, harnessing interest, planning a pipeline, and increasing profit potential, but, it is the strategy behind it’s use that will garner the most success as we move through the next phases of the market cycle. We’ve put together some tips for planning for market confidence to return…
- Know your target market – To make the most of the current conditions does your reach need to expand to include interstate or overseas investors? If so, how will their participation be captured in a traditional release?
- Be ready to react to changes in the market – if interest were to surge tomorrow, will you be using the same tactics of yesteryear? Or will you be looking to reduce the time and cost of sale, while capturing interest to sustain operational and sales success long after the initial release or interest period?
- Keep an eye on the competition – Property developers large and small are turning to technology to replace or enhance their off the plan release – what steps are you taking to make sure you’re not peddling the hardest?
- Use technology to your advantage – when it comes to sales, in person releases can come at a significant cost, not only from resourcing, but on-the-day event expenditure too. First-in-first-served models are also taking a toll on your profit potential by not harnessing the interest that’s in the market to your advantage. Switching to an online release process has both commercial and operational pay offs.
Now is the time to consider how you’ll improve your release processes to take advantage of the next phase of the market cycle for both short-term and long-term success. One such way, is a switch to an online release platform, such as Release.Me, which automates and streamlines the additional workload that goes along with a release, saving time and money.
Release.Me is not first-in first-served, which means all interested buyers can participate in a release, from any device and from the comfort of their homes (expanding buyer reach). Interested buyers can submit multiple property preferences (harnessing interest in data) and an algorithm allocates the stock fairly (improving customer experience). The platform takes care of the leg work from contract preparation to deposit collection, contract appointment bookings and buyer communication and notifications (increasing efficiency and reducing costs).
Using technology and allowing all interested buyers to participate in a release, ensures immediate and real time market preference data and insights that allow you to adjust your property pipeline and pricing to maximise profit potential in the near time, while harnessing customer preferences to bolster your lead list and improve sale probabilities well into the future.
Oh, and one last tip….
.5. Cover all of your bases – Your project website is your only sales person that’s working 24/7/365, but I would hazard a guess that your buyers are unable to purchase directly from your website? If so, why not? Buyers research, compare and select their desired properties online and without an e-commerce option on your site you may actually have buyers slipping through the cracks. The good news? Release.Me has that covered too. Check out our Buy Now option.
Find out more about how you can harness Release.Me for your next release and from our happy users here.
Book a demo today and ensure you have considered your preparedness for market confidence to return.
Did we mention that you can go from account creation to live release in under 10 minutes? Create your free Seller account and try it out today.