Clever Finance Solutions: You’ve been in the real estate industry for over 10 years and have become an expert with the St George market. Can you tell us what in your opinion is happening in your local market?

Bill:  While traditionally people make the jump from one place to another we are now seeing a substantial difference in price points and moving somewhere bigger or better has become incredibly prohibitive. Once upon a time young couples would sell their “first home” and trade up. That “jump” is effectively happening less and less. Home owners are now staying put and renovating or extending their homes, they are adding that extra bedroom, or putting an additional level on their home. This solves their immediate issues and it makes more financial sense in the short term. The entry and exit costs such as stamp duty are also eliminated.

Clever Finance Solutions: You’ve been in the real estate industry for over 10 years now, can you tell us who is buying in the St George area?

Bill: The changing face of buyers has evolved in the last 10 years. The exodus from Sydney’s eastern suburbs has been gathering momentum. The value for money in Sydney’s St George suburbs such as Banksia, Carlton, Arncliffe, Sans Souci etc far surpasses what that same amount of money will buy in the East. In fact, we are for the first time in a long time, seeing the ratio of local buyers to those buyers that are out of area, in this instance Sydney’s eastern suburbs almost on par with each other.

Clever Finance Solutions: Can you describe some of the key lifestyle factors of the area?

Bill: The St George area is now viewed as “cool” and “happening”. With its bayside living, proximity to the city, excellent schools, café culture and lots of green space. The vibe is casual, relaxed and quite friendly. It has also become a “destination”, there is a marked difference between the Monday – Friday crowd of locals here in Brighton Le Sands and the weekend. We are attracting people from all over with our local offerings of restaurants, cafés and the beach!

Clever Finance Solutions: Bill what advise can you give our readers about the property market?

Bill: The key points for any buyers are:

• look at the infrastructure available. Are you close to the station? Accessibility to trains and buses has become increasingly important.
• The different schools available and their catchment areas. Something that we are seeing a lot of is families wanting to send their children to specific schools and in effect that dictating where the next family home is purchased.
• Buy land where possible instead of a unit. Perhaps look at an older semi as opposed to a new unit.

Bill Tsounias of McGrath Brighton Le Sands, in Sydney’s southern suburbs, is ranked 48th* in the top 100 agents nationally. (Source Real Estate Business website and magazine.) Thank you for this snapshot Bill, in our new section… “Keeping up with the Joneses.”