Albany Property Team licensee Darren Leslie confirms tight market conditions, as buyers race to secure homes

One of the Great Southern’s leading real estate agents has said he is not surprised Albany has topped the State list of surging property markets, forecasting continued high demand and low stock for at least another 18 months. Albany Property Team licensee and sales director Darren Leslie said Albany’s red-hot market was under tremendous pressure. He said recent reports from analysis group Cotality that listed a 23 per cent jump in price to a median of $680,765 and an average market time of 12 days — the shortest selling time in WA — did not come as a shock. “We’ve long been forecasting that the market is drastically going to tighten in Albany, largely because of the vast lack of stock,” he said. “This is the lowest amount of stock on the market, especially under 800k, that we’ve ever seen — it’s never been as bad. “The influx of population and low supply is only going to push the prices in one direction. “Coupled with the fact that there are negligible levels of new blocks, with very few land releases due for at least 18 months, there is very little now and little on the horizon.” Mr Leslie said there was only a handful of blocks left available in four of the largest new developments in the city: Lancaster Green and Clydesdale Park in McKail, Oyster Harbour in Bayonet Head, and Corymbia in Lange. “I estimate the demand for new blocks in the Albany greater region is 500 a year,” he said. “At the moment, we’ve got approximately 20 available. “It’s not a great situation at the moment.” Neville and Lisa Stanway, who went through the rigmarole of buying a property in Yakamia seven months ago after moving from Mandurah, said the market was competitive even then. “When we did look, we noticed that there was always a lot of interest in homes and so the one that we looked at, there were five other people coming that afternoon,” Mr Stanway said. “We had this small window to get an offer in and we found that if we weren’t cashed up ready to buy, you sort of went to the bottom of the queue a little bit. “I think we got ours maybe only about $25,000 above the asking price, because we were cashed up ready to go, but there were other properties we looked at $50,000-$70,000 above the asking price, and we knew that if we weren’t ready to put an offer in, we could miss out.” He said a Little Grove home they intended to put an offer on had already received three bids — one of which was accepted — by 5pm, only four hours after its first home open. Now on the lookout for a home for their daughter and son-in-law, Mr Stanway said the market was even more cutthroat half a year on. “We looked at a house a few weeks ago for one of our children and I think we counted 60 cars outside, along the road, and that was only whilst we were there,” he said. Mr Leslie said almost 95 per cent of the properties his team had sold went for above the asking price and were subject to multiple offers. The agent, who has been working in Albany for 16 years, said the post-COVID boom was out of character for the region, attributing the population surge to increasing liveability. “We’ve always relied on intra-Albany buyers, but now there are lots of buyers from outside the region who have realised how desirable Albany is,” Mr Leslie said. Mr Leslie sympathised with those unable to enter the market in the current climate, but labelled it as “life-changing” for those with a foot on the ladder. “If you’re currently holding property, its great times, and there are beautiful stories of young people who have got in and set themselves up and been able to grow their personal wealth in a short time,” he said. “The parameters are going to get worse, not better, but it’s a problem everywhere in Australia right now.”