Shannan Whitney

Yes, so 28 years in the Sydney real estate market.

And yes, I have seen quite a lot of strong and bearish markets and cycles.

So the difference with this particular cycle is probably the speed of the deceleration and the erosion on values probably come down faster than I've normally seen in a down cycle like this.

However, coming off the back of the previous cycle we've just experienced, which was

one of the strongest bull markets and value rises we've seen in Sydney.

You can probably understand what goes up fast probably has to come down quite quickly too.

Yeah, it does.

If you stand back and look at the last two and a half years in Sydney real estate, it's been a real roller coaster.

You know, the run down the hill was a really steep, fast, aggressive strength in pricing and demand.

And then when we reached the top,

you know, and some of the macroeconomic changes and some of the social changes that had to go on both in our domestic economy and also around the world meant that, you know, the interest rate cycle changed quite quickly and quite ferociously.

So to see, you know, the values come down as quickly as it has is stark contrast to where we were, you know, not only 12 months, 18 months ago.

They do.

And I think that plays quite a significant role in the general market sentiment that has a great influence on real estate, the performance of real estate as a category.

This particular cycle is no different.

And I think to your point in terms of the current clearance rate in a place like Sydney hovering around 50%, I think it dipped below 50%.

The current values on the buyer side is certainly having difficulty lining up with where the vendors are thinking values or where they're hoping value to be.

So when you have that, you know, disparity, which is what we have right now, you know, you see clearance rates, you know, come down under 50%, which is rare in Sydney.

You don't see that very often.

Look, it is, I think that, you know, I call that still, you know, an example of cautious confidence from the market.