Nick Lord

Thank you for having me.

Yeah, look, we've had an exceptional two and a half years as I think sort of a lot of markets across Australia have been quite buoyant.

If we look back, it's certainly been underpinned by the COVID wave and the mass exodus out of Melbourne.

Historically, Craig, probably 10 to 15 years ago, we'd say a lot of young people moved back from Melbourne, but had a family connection in Geelong and returned for support and affordability.

More recently, just Melbourne people with no real connection historically with Geelong have decided now...

Move out of the city, affordability is driving that point and also lifestyle change.

So that's really underpinned our market.

Yeah, look, stock and price probably align.

Our pricing point at the moment is holding quite well and that's the back.

There is a shortage of stock across the board in our market.

is giving a little bit more opportunity for buyers to take their time, do some further research.

But our stock has certainly tightened up.

And my best estimate, we're probably sitting at 25% to 30% down on our normal stock levels in the market.

Yeah, we've certainly seen a change in the buyer activity.

We're probably estimating we're 50% to 60% down on buyer inquiry and numbers attending our opens.

Again, with the shortage of stock, pricing's certainly been holding okay, but we've just seen what I would think a short-term change to the market.

Yeah, we're seeing the rebound in the last couple of weeks.

Certainly with the interest rate rises, it has a focus on your first home buyers.

I think they've been waiting, researching the market, and they're starting to re-enter even in the short period of a couple of weeks.

There is a shift.