As we all know, the property market tends to move in cycles. There will be periods when house prices increase significantly over a short period of time. Often investors join the hunt for property and with high demand, homes tend to sell very quickly – This is the “Sellers” market. The reverse is true during a “Buyers” market. At this time supply outstrips demand, buyers have less urgency, and can usually choose between a number of properties – properties tend to stay on the market longer, and, if prices are dropping, the number of buyers drops further.

In between the buyers and sellers market, there is usually a period of stability, where house prices are steadily (not at an explosive rate) rising and buyers and sellers expectations are more closely matched.

It’s useful to understand which part of the cycle your target area is in. You can get a feel for this by looking at the amount of time properties tend to stay on the market – if properties are taking an average of 100+ days to sell then you’re probably in a buyer’s market. If however, market time is as low as 30 days, you’ll know that you’re in a sellers market. Whilst the press will shout headline news, and give you a feel for the general market conditions – these conditions may not apply to you. This is especially true for well-sought-after areas. It’s a fact that there are always suburbs that buck the trend, and, if yours is one of them, then you need to know about it. Certainly, there seems to be a general trend for house price increases to start earlier near to the city centre, then ripple to the outer suburbs – So, when you hear of the ‘next boom’, this may be true for a select group of inner-city suburbs, but it may take many months (or years!) for this to be true in the area that you’re looking at.

If you are trying to second guess the market and wait until the market has “bottomed out”, or are thinking that the market has now peaked and you’ve missed the growth potential, then you’ll probably get it wrong! During the last growth spurt, there will be stories of 100’s of families that decided not to buy after year 1, or year 2, thinking that the bubble was sure to burst, and now they’ll be kicking themselves as they can afford only a fraction of what they could otherwise have afforded. Of course, it’s all speculation as to what will / will not happen in the future, so you need to think of the long term – and what your goals really are for home ownership. Generally the highs and lows tend to even out for home owners – if you buy high you tend to sell high and vice-versa, so don’t spend your life procrastinating and worrying about what might happen in terms of price trends.