{"id":300,"date":"2026-09-02T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartbuyeragent.com\/au\/?p=300"},"modified":"2026-09-08T11:37:44","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T01:37:44","slug":"waiting-for-the-bottom-could-cost-you-more-than-you-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartbuyeragent.com\/au\/2026\/09\/02\/waiting-for-the-bottom-could-cost-you-more-than-you-think\/","title":{"rendered":"Waiting for the Property Price Bottom Could Cost You More Than You Think"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><strong>SYDNEY, NSW \u2013 2 Sept, 2026 \u2013 <\/strong><\/strong>Sydney\u2019s housing downturn shows little sign of easing. Home prices in the harbour city have now fallen for a sixth consecutive month, slipping another 0.3 per cent in August and sitting 4.9 per cent below their late-2025 peak, according to realestate.com.au\u2019s latest Home Price Report. Nationally, Cotality data shows values are already 3.6 per cent below the March 2026 high after a 0.9 per cent drop in August \u2014 the fifth straight monthly decline \u2014 with 93 per cent of capital-city suburbs now recording falls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Major banks have sharpened their forecasts. Commonwealth Bank now expects a national peak-to-trough decline of around 9 per cent, with Sydney and Melbourne potentially falling 13 per cent and 12 per cent respectively. ANZ has flagged even steeper Sydney falls of up to 14.5 per cent \u2014 levels not seen since the early 1980s. NAB\u2019s chief economist Sally Auld recently suggested the correction is only about one-third complete, both in time and price terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Against that backdrop, the temptation for many buyers is obvious: wait for the absolute bottom. Yet experienced market watchers are warning that strategy is far harder \u2014 and riskier \u2014 than it sounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cFor buyers waiting for the bottom it sounds sensible, but it\u2019s pretty hard to do in practice because you only know the market has bottomed out once the market has started to turn,\u201d says Mathew Tiller, LJ Hooker Head of Research. \u201cWhen confidence returns the competition can come back in quite quickly, once there are reports that we\u2019re past the bottom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tiller\u2019s advice is straightforward: base the decision on personal circumstances rather than attempting to time the cycle perfectly. Focus on buying well, negotiating carefully and not over-extending. Structural supports remain in place \u2014 strong population growth, low unemployment, tight rental markets and an ongoing undersupply of homes \u2014 that are likely to put a floor under how far prices can fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots\"\/>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted has-medium-font-size\">While traditional buyer agents charge $15,000\u2013$40,000+, We evaluate hundreds of key data points \u2014 historical sales, listings, location metrics, and land details \u2014 to give you confident, high-return buying decisions. Don\u2019t overpay for expertise!<\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:20px;font-style:italic;font-weight:500\">Unlock expert property buying advice report for FREE (real $0).<strong> <a href=\"\/au\/buyer-brief\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"\/au\/buyer-brief\/\">Start your Buyer Brief now<\/a>!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">PRD chief economist Dr Diaswati (Asti) Mardiasmo agrees that pinpointing the exact bottom is fraught, especially because conditions vary sharply between suburbs. Capital-city medians and bank forecasts are averages; individual suburbs move to their own rhythm. Buyers who wait too long can miss the short window of opportunity when confidence returns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe speed of the market actually growing is much faster than it falling,\u201d Mardiasmo notes. \u201cIt is much faster in recovery than it is to go backwards, because we do have undersupply and we have a higher demand. The time of that golden key opportunity window is definitely much shorter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">History supports the point. Recoveries after previous soft patches, including the brief Covid-era dip, have often been sharper than the preceding declines. Once sentiment shifts \u2014 whether triggered by clearer rate direction, stabilising listings or simply the realisation that prices have stopped falling \u2014 sidelined buyers can re-enter quickly, lifting competition and prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Interest-rate decisions over the coming months will heavily influence how far and how long the current adjustment runs. Some agents are looking toward mid-to-late 2027 as a possible trough, linked to the full impact of Budget tax changes and the path of the cash rate. But even those timelines remain contingent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The practical cost of waiting is not only the risk of missing a particular property or suburb. Longer campaigns and higher stock levels are currently giving buyers more negotiating power and choice \u2014 advantages that tend to evaporate once the market turns. Holding off also means continuing to pay rent in a still-tight rental market, while construction costs and replacement values keep rising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">None of this is an argument to rush. Buyers should still stress-test their finances, avoid stretching too far, and treat every purchase as a long-term decision. But treating the search for the precise market bottom as the primary strategy risks turning a period of relative opportunity into a period of regret.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In short: buy the right property, at a price that works for your situation, rather than waiting for an exact turning point that is only clear in hindsight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SYDNEY, NSW \u2013 2 Sept, 2026 \u2013 Sydney\u2019s housing downturn shows little sign of easing. Home prices in the harbour city have now fallen for a sixth consecutive month, slipping another 0.3 per cent in August and sitting 4.9 per cent below their late-2025 peak, according to realestate.com.au\u2019s latest Home Price Report. Nationally, Cotality data [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[40,275,279,278,276,280,235,274,277,270,155,68],"class_list":["post-300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-australian-property-market","tag-buyer-strategy","tag-buying-tips","tag-cotality","tag-house-prices","tag-housing-correction","tag-interest-rates","tag-market-bottom","tag-property-downturn-2026","tag-proptrack","tag-real-estate-australia","tag-sydney-property"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartbuyeragent.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartbuyeragent.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartbuyeragent.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartbuyeragent.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartbuyeragent.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/smartbuyeragent.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":318,"href":"https:\/\/smartbuyeragent.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300\/revisions\/318"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartbuyeragent.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartbuyeragent.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartbuyeragent.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartbuyeragent.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}