More than $40 million worth of hotel assets have been sold in the New England region in the past month, with more sales to be announced in the coming weeks - and the appetite for regional property is not limited to pubs, local realtors say.
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The owner of Uphill & Schaefer Real Estate, Shane Kliendienst, has been working in the Armidale area for 25 years, and he says he has never seen anything like it.
"It's the best market I've sold in - it's just so strong - it hasn't stopped since mid last year," Mr Kliendienst said.
"It is a very buoyant market at the moment."
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While some home buyers are moving to Armidale, many of them are more focused on investment purchases. Mr Kliendienst said he had had enquiries from a buyers agent in Sydney who has buyers from across the country on his books.
"He does the leg work, and when he gets the enquiries from his investor clients, he calls towns he thinks are on the move - and at the moment, that is Armidale," Mr Kliendeist said.
"He called me a few weeks ago and said he had eight qualified clients, and if I could find eight suitable properties, he would buy them all.
"We are getting some calls from tree changers and retirees, but a lot of enquiries are for investment."
Mr Kliendienst said physical inspection of the property was not essential to buyers these days, and it was not just metropolitan-based investors with that approach.
"We're selling a lot of properties site-unseen," he said.
"There is a lot of enquiry coming out of Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie and Foster. The entry point price to get into the market on the coast has gone mad, so property investors are buying up here."
As selling speeds up, stock is dwindling, and prices are on the rise.
"We're getting competition, so we are selling a lot at the asking price, " said Mr Kliendienst.
"People are scared of missing out, so they are just offering the asking price or more."
Brad Dunham is the director of First National in Armidale and he says the commercial real estate market is also booming.
His business partner, Neil Mortimer, has industrial subdivisions (including both Armidale Airport business estates) on his books, and he says the outlook for Armidale is very positive with an increase in business across all sectors, including hotels, services, rural land sales, and cooperative research centres associated with the university.
"It's all quite busy at the moment, and a lot of people are getting out of the metro markets and getting into the regions," Mr Dunham said.
"The fact that we have the university and that we are all fibre to the premise and that land is a bit cheaper than some of the metro areas makes us an attractive proposition."
And many good news stories are coming out of Armidale, according to Mr Dunham, despite what people might hear.
"Retail is a struggle in lots of locations, but we are predominantly a services-based economy now, and that's been doing really well," he said.
"It's not just real estate and property. I think there are many service businesses and trades related to property and other things that are going on that are all doing quite well. So I think this is a good time for our area, and the renewables energy zone is going in as well, which is pretty cool."
New listings and residential stock-on-market levels are low, pushing prices higher and creating a shortage of available rental properties.
"Fewer listings on the market is keeping prices buoyant, and we don't see that changing anytime soon," Mr Dunham said.
"We have a large property management division, and we have no rentals available, but the enquiries keep coming."
Mr Dunham says he is also seeing an increase in premium residential home sales in Armidale - defined as those properties with an asking price of more than $600,000.
"For the current 12 months (ending June 30, 2021), the volume of sales in that premium residential sector is more than 300 percent higher than the previous year," Mr Dunham said.
"And there has been a 75 percent increase overall in the total number of residential properties sold. With the combined median price across all markets rising 15 percent year to date, and the length of time the property stays on the market shortening by more than 20 percent."
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