Despite being halved on 30 September, the government’s first home owners grant continues to attract buyers to the market.
According to Coffs Harbour NSW Real Estate principal Chris Biggs, demand is currently outweighing supply in the beach side community.
“There's such strong demand in the Coffs Harbour market from first home buyers, even now after the cut in the home buyer's grant,” Mr Biggs told The Coffs Advocate.
Over the past 12 months, almost 50,000 new home buyers entered the property market nationally – the largest proportion since 2001.
“Housing in the $400,000 bracket is doing particularly well,” he said.
“There's a lot of competition when it comes to offers and bidding on these houses. A lot of first home buyers are actively buying these homes.”
According to Mr Biggs, the best way for agents to capitalise on the first home buyer segment is to improve their website.
“At least 80 per cent of our agency's sales come via internet inquiry, that's what buyers are telling us when we ask 'where did you first see the home'?” Mr Biggs said.
AC Nielsen Online Research showed the property website realesate.com had more than 5.2 million unique visitors in September.
The monthly count also set a NSW record where 1.76 million potential buyers looked for property on the site.