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The network CEO says it’s time to adapt to the “new era” of Australian real estate.
Each year, McGrath issues a report looking at what current market trends mean for the year ahead. In its 2025 property analysis, the network’s CEO and founder, John McGrath, explains how a confluence of factors are transforming long-held notions of the nation’s property landscape.
According to the CEO, economic factors coupled with a major demographic event are serving to contract interest in certain areas of the market.
“Australians need more housing options in the areas where they want to live and work, also giving them the ability to choose different types of properties at different stages of life,” the CEO said.
At the moment, cost-of-living pressures are driving the young cohort into certain markets, which often overlap with those eyed by the increasing number of retirees.
“Higher interest rates are straining some parts of the market, while stronger activity among Baby Boomers is also having an impact on property values” he explained.
“The age of 2 per cent to 3 per cent mortgage rates is over, and many buyers are responding to tighter credit by moving to more affordable areas and/or buying smaller homes,” McGrath furthered.
At the same time, he noted that by 2025, every Baby Boomer will have access to their superannuation, prompting many to make new decisions about where to live.
“We’re seeing this today. Baby Boomers are retiring, downsizing, buying investments and helping their kids buy their first homes,” McGrath commented.
Moreover, he noted that according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 710,000 Australians intend to retire between FY23 and FY28. Many will make a seachange, taking generous budgets to comparatively affordable coastal towns, with a steady price uplift inevitable in the most popular locations.
Those are some of the same coastal markets increasingly drawing family-aged Millennial workers due to their affordability, which have been unlocked by remote working.
Two such coastal markets that McGrath anticipated will be running hot this year are Long Jetty, on NSW’s Central Coast, and the Sunshine Coast’s Caloundra West.
McGrath commented that both of these locales have done their time in the shadow of other more well-known hotspots and are getting ready to take a turn in the spotlight.
“Caloundra West has long played second fiddle to the neighbouring and arguably more glamourous seaside suburb of Caloundra. This is now changing, as Sunshine Coast buyers take an interest in Caloundra West’s less expensive housing. What’s more, the suburb’s location close to the coast, and the new Stockland Aura development, makes it an appealing lifestyle choice,” he noted.
Of Long Jetty’s reputation as “somewhat unfashionable”, McGrath commented that “those days are over and this little jewel in the crown remains some of the best value on the east coast”.
“Work from home and commute to Sydney a couple of days a week? Sounds like heaven to me,” the real estate mogul remarked.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Juliet Helmke
Based in Sydney, Juliet Helmke has a broad range of reporting and editorial experience across the areas of business, technology, entertainment and the arts. She was formerly Senior Editor at The New York Observer.
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