There’s a lot of home owners that are looking at downsizing these days.

Whether it’s due to a desire to move into a smaller, easier-to-maintain property (perhaps an apartment or lifestyle village accommodation), or just not needing as large a home as you have now, one of the biggest questions I get asked is around timing.

As in, when’s the best time to sell your current property, keeping in mind that your goal is to buy another smaller property.

In this video, I discuss timing as it currently stands in the market.

Please keep in mind that my advice might change from what I say in the video, depending on your specific circumstances and also what’s happening in the local property market as well.

This video segment was pulled from a long interview I did back in Feb 2022, where I answered a heap of frequently asked questions (FAQ) about real estate.

Once you’ve watched the video, let me know your thoughts and any extra questions you have on the topic in the comments below.

Note: The video was filmed in portrait mode rather than landscape, which is why it is narrow rather than wide. For the best viewing experience, I recommend you click the Full Screen mode button.

Additional Resources

Transcript:

So, it depends on what the downsize actually is.

So whether you are moving into a lifestyle village, for instance, so one of those lifestyle communities, the over 55 villages those sort of things, because they are a cash purchase which means you are more than likely going to need to be selling at the highest part of the market as you possibly can to cash and have some change left over to nest off into your superannuation or to nest off into your retirement fund and have the cash purchase and outlay of that lifestyle that you’re buying.

So that is a time when timing of the market does come in, so anyone out there at the moment while the market conditions are still extremely favorable for selling.

If you are looking at going into a lifestyle village or that style of accommodation as your downsize and there’s a lot that are ’cause they’re great lifestyle then you want to be getting onto the market pretty quickly now just on the down low.

If you are going to be buying independent living, so if you are just going to be buying a smaller, standalone, owner-occupied home potentially in the same estate that you’re in or close to your kids and that sort of thing, grandkids then you kind of are in a little bit of a tough spot at the moment with regards to the first home buyers.

So first-time buyers are our most active buyer group in 3977 at the moment.

Their budget has been pushed upwards with the interest rates being lower.

They’ve had that serviceability and they’ve had to borrow more money.

So what’s happened is that we’ve seen the first home buyer and the smaller properties actually increase in price out of step with some of the larger homes.

They’ve increased by more. So you may actually be better off waiting for a slightly calmer market.

Still getting a very good price for yours, but not having as much competition on the smaller home that you are wanting to buy into.