How The Sydney Property Market is Bouncing Back

The Reserve Bank of Australia’s decision to cut the cash rate by 0.25% in February has been great news for the property market, persuading more people, including first-home buyers, to invest in bricks and mortar.

Rocked by cost-of-living pressures buyers are increasingly attracted to apartment developments from trusted builders, especially if the package includes attractive amenities, good services and fast connectivity.

That is the view of Brendan Woolley, Director of Research at Charter Keck Cramer, who has over 25 years’ experience in the property market.

“Builder reputation is becoming increasingly more important in the market,” he said. “Savvy purchasers are asking ‘who is building this? Will it get over the line? Will I have a product if I put a deposit down?’ That concern is really across all aspects of the market.”

Brendan sat down recently with Scott Rudgley, Head of Sales at ALAND, to discuss the state of the market in the wake of the Reserve Bank’s historic decision to cut interest rates – perhaps the first of several cuts.

According to Scott the shift in buyer sentiment was discernible from the moment that the RBA made its announcement in February, generating many more enquiries for ALAND’s projects in Schofields, Parramatta CBD, Edmondson Park and Gosford on the Central Coast.

“We’ve seen a real shift in the market since the RBA’s rate cut announcement. Lots of first-home buyers re-entering the market and really getting the confidence to make a purchasing decision,” he said.

“ALAND has already delivered over 1,000 apartments at our Schofield Gardens development. The masterplan offers great amenities and connectivity, with an annualised capital growth of 6.3%.”

But Brendan believes that interest rates are only one factor leading to increased activity in the market, pointing to Sydney’s ongoing housing shortage – a situation fuelled by high levels of immigration.

“The Sydney apartment market remains quite challenging because there’s a significant undersupply of new housing stock – and that’s been emerging over an extended period,” he said.

“There’s significant demand off the back of strong population growth but there’s just not enough supply being brought to market. There’s just not a lot of choice out there at the moment to buy good quality stock.”

Now is the time to buy, rather than delay

With many economists tipping further interest rate cuts over the course of 2025 and into 2026 more people are likely to invest in property, leading to higher prices as developers struggle to deliver new housing stock.

Brendan is advising buyers to get into the market early, or risk having to pay much higher prices for their dream home down the track.

“We’re at a point now where we’ve just had an interest rate cut and I think the response is going to be quite elastic,” he said.

“Demand is going to increase again. I think that will lead to price growth which is going to further affect cost of living [pressures]. My thought is that if you are looking to buy into the market, it’s probably better to do it earlier rather than later to get ahead of that price growth.”

While the chronic undersupply of new housing is an ongoing issue, Brendan argues infrastructure projects such as the Sydney Metro are reshaping the property map, with huge implications for Greater Sydney.

“There will be a Metro line that goes through to Parramatta by 2032. I know that’s a little way off, but it’s been a game changer so far,” he said

“The line is continuing from Sydenham to Bankstown. And there’s talk of a [Metro] line to Liverpool. It’s only going to be very positive for people who live in these areas.”

Both Brendan and Scott agree that Sydney is simply not building enough affordable new homes to keep up with our current population growth – despite the ambitious targets set out in the National Housing Accord.

For example, Liverpool LGA has a target of building around 20,000 new homes over the next five years but is currently only delivering around 10% of that figure. It is a situation repeated across NSW.

“For some time, there’s been a significant imbalance between the amount of new supply being brought to market and the growing demand though population growth,” said Brendan. “That’s a story that’s being seen right across Sydney – and I don’t see anything changing in the short-term.”