16 Oct The size of the downsizer market

Research has revealed that nationally in the last 12 months agents listed 54,000 downsizer properties.

Topic – Upskill on downsizing

Mentor – Greg Oddy

• Downsizing vs tree change vs sea change
• Lock and leave is key
• Low maintenance

Property Management Matters with Tara Bradbury – The key to social media success.

Transcript:

Kevin:   This week in the show we’re describing for you the downsizer market looking at the opportunities as we see baby boomers come through. This is an enormous wave that’s coming through and creating some great opportunities for agents who might have properties that would suit that downsizer market. So lets this morning have a look at just how big that market is and try to describe it a little bit more. Greg Oddy joins us. Greg is the Director of Sales and Marketing at downsizing.com.au. Greg, thanks again for your time. Good morning.

Greg:  Thanks Kevin. Thanks for having me.

Kevin:   How big is this market? I know you’ve researched this. Obviously you would have done before you put the site together to know just how well followed this would be. How big is that market?

Greg:  Yeah, Kevin. Our research tells us that in the last 12 months real estate agents across the country combined had about 54,000 properties that we would deem to be downsizing properties or properties that would fit our audience or properties that real estate agents have said themselves are targeting downsizers and retirees or baby boomers. It’s a fair chunk of the market.

Kevin:   It certainly is, 54,000 and you’d imagine that’s growing and will continue to grow. Could you describe for me what that typical property looks like? Just for agents who think that they might have a property that’s going to suit to go onto your site.

Greg:  I think in explaining that probably I could talk a little bit about the change in trends as well. I mean a lot of people think about downsizing or retiring to sea change and tree change which is still a factor. There’s a lot more happening metro and people are looking for different kinds of properties now. They want to sort of stay around where they’ve traditionally lived. We’re finding newer apartments are certainly one of the key factors of what our audience is looking for. Smaller properties as far as villas and townhouses. Homes that are on smaller blocks, Kevin, in certain areas. That’s certainly something that’s our demographic.

Kevin:   So it’d something like low maintenance if it’s a unit you can lock it up. Because I could imagine a lot of these people if they’re downsizing out of fairly big houses, they’re going to come in pretty well cashed up, so they’ll probably be travelling as well.

Greg:  Oh definitely. Look, the ability to lock it and leave or depending on where they are the ability to park. Certain things like caravans or Winnebagos in some instances but in units that’s probably not a possibility. Certainly the ability to have lots of storage and lots of space within a smaller property is something that the demographic is after as well.

Kevin:   You made an interesting comment yesterday on the show. I just wanted to pick up on it again because it helps us to understand this market a little bit more. That is that a lot of people are looking at downsizing while they’re still working. In other words before they finish their active working career.

Greg:  Yes. We’re seeing a lot of that and even people downsizing in their forties. Once the children have moved out of home they might be in their early twenties and there’s no need for the backyard anymore and the kids are never home anyway. So the parents are looking to downsize or get in earlier and just save on maintenance and actually put a little bit of money in their back pocket if they can.

Kevin:   So once again that call for agents who think they might have a property that suits, I understand you’ve done a paper as a result of that survey through your Facebook audience. Are there interesting insights from that, that we might be able to tap into, Greg?

Greg:  Yeah, look, definitely there are. Some of the things you might already guess yourself but there’s a few insights in there that it’s worth having a look through and getting it straight from the horse’s mouth, as they say, and listening to what our downsizing audience had to say. We asked them a lot of questions but one of the main ones at the end was what does downsizing mean to you? I think there’s a lot in that for your listeners around what their potential clients are actually looking for.

Kevin:   Okay. Well, that paper is available. There’s a link going to be just down below today’s podcast on our website, realestateuncut.com.au. Check it out for yourself. If you’re listening on iTunes I know we’ve got many thousands of people who do, you’ll need to come across to the site and find that link and that will take you to a page where you can get this downsizing special report. We’ll share another one with you later in the week as well about how to market to downsizers.

Kevin:   My guest is Greg Oddy. Greg is from the website downsizing.com.au. There is a link for you to go to their website. Lots of interesting papers there as well. Greg will come back tomorrow. I want to talk about what’s important to downsizers and what it is they’re looking for. This will help us target them a little bit more.

Kevin:   Greg, we’ll talk to you tomorrow morning.

Greg:   Thanks, Kevin, talk to you then.