The scarcity of houses has pushed prices up, with some selling at 25 per cent over valuation. Ray White Hobart director Adrian Gray said while confidence in the industry was back up, sellers were fearful of entering the market. We're sitting here and everyone's doing the hard yards, doing letter box drops, but you can't convince people they are going to get a good price. Tasmanian sales for the first four months this year, individually and collectively, were better than at any other time since 1994. Real Estate Institute of Tasmania chief executive officer Jarrod Nation said with high sales figures, a scarcity of properties occurred and prices rose.
Listings are much harder to come by.
Agents have to work twice as hard. Mr Gray said all agents were having similar problems. Petrusma and Partners director Hank Petrusma said the sellers' market had resulted from low interest rates, mainland interest, an acknowledgement that Hobart real estate provided good value and a snowball effect from the grant to first home-buyers. Mr Petrusma said there were shortages across the board in all areas and in all price brackets. Mr Gray said shortages were particularly noticeable in the Hobart inner-city area.