Choosing to sell a property off-market could see vendors miss out on as much as $60,000, according to a new report.
The PropTrack Off-Market Sales Performance Report found that from July 2021 to March 2022, properties sold off-market achieved a sales price 3.8 per cent lower than those listed on real estate portals.
The result for off-market properties was worst in Sydney, where houses sold off-market achieved prices 4.2 per cent lower than listed sales, equating to a loss of more than $60,000, while units in Greater Sydney, sold for 2.9 per cent less if they were sold off-market.
PropTrack Senior Economist and report author, Paul Ryan said deciding to sell off-market may come at a cost to sellers.
“While some sellers might try to save money by not advertising online, this analysis shows the potential earnings lost in the final sale price far outweighs the initial cost of advertising – particularly in a market with prices falling,” Mr Ryan said.
“These results are based on sales from July 2021 to March 2022, when home price growth slowed rapidly, and reflect the losses for selling off-market in current slowing market conditions, a key consideration for sellers as home prices decline further over the next year.”
Off-market sales in locations with median prices between $500,000 and $750,000 perform the worst nationally, achieving 4.2 per cent lower sale prices, the report found.
In Greater Melbourne, house owners were 2.4 per cent ($25,000) worse off selling off-market on average and 5.8 per cent lower in regional Victoria.
House sales were 4.9 per cent lower in Brisbane and 2.4 per cent lower in regional Queensland for those only sold off market.
Meanwhile, nationally, units sold for 1.3 per cent lower off-market, on average.
Mr Ryan said the volume of sales between the $500,000 and $750,000 price points is significant in the market.
“Over a third of house sales over this study period sat within this price bracket,” he said.
“Though, homes at all price segments saw similar off-market performance, compared to those listed on realestate.com.au.
“While higher-priced regions, those with median prices above $1 million, saw the smallest price differences between on and off-market transactions in percentage terms, it was a still significant 3.5 per cent difference.
“The potential cost in dollars for these sellers is also likely to be larger because the transaction value tends to be significantly larger.”
Ray White Preston Director, Ian Dempsey said choosing to advertise a property for sale online has never been more important than in this current property market.
“With home prices falling, a strong marketing campaign can be the difference between securing the best price possible and settling for a price below a vendor’s expectations,” Mr Dempsey said.
“I encourage my clients to invest in an online digital marketing campaign if they want to achieve the optimum result.
“Attracting the largest possible pool of potential buyers translates into inspections and inevitably, bidders at auction or offers.
“The wider a vendor casts a net for buyers the better because you end up with more competition and ultimately a higher price.”
Mr Dempsey recently sold a property in Melbourne’s Preston for $1,524,000 after listing the home online.
“The property previously attracted offers between $1,200,000 and $1,300,000 off-market,” he said.
“We encouraged our vendors to list their home to drive competition and reach a wider pool of potential buyers.
“We went from six inspections off-market to 224 inspections across the period of the campaign, driving the price up in only four weeks.”
