PHOTO: Ian Kingsford-Smith and Berni Joseph in front of their new apartment, near Parramatta in western Sydney.( ABC News: Simon Beardsell)
Despite house prices rising at their fastest pace in 32 years, apartments in Australia’s most oversupplied cities aren’t getting as much love from buyers.
Key points:
In some areas, unit prices have tumbled in the past year and still haven’t recovered from their COVID-19 slump — with Sydney and Melbourne the worst hit capitals.
Those cities, in particular, have relied heavily on international students and foreign workers being able to pass freely through Australia’s borders, to rent out apartments that their investor landlords don’t want to live in themselves.
That’s how Ian Kingsford-Smith and his partner Berni Joseph were able to buy their first home together, in Sydney, two weeks ago.
“If we bought this property six to 12 months ago, the price would have been 5 to 10 per cent higher,” Mr Kingsford-Smith told ABC News.
Like many Australians, they had been renting for many years, and hadn’t been able find any properties they liked within their price range near Parramatta, in Sydney’s western suburbs.
To his surprise, the pandemic presented the couple with an opportunity to buy a newly-built apartment (at a slightly distressed price), in an area with lots of empty units.
READ MORE VIA ABC
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