Hi, it’s Adrian Bo here and I would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas to everyone across Sydney, particularly the Eastern Suburbs, where I have been mastering my craft of selling real estate for 31 years. Now, 2020 is certainly a year we will never forget. When COVID first hit, frankly, the market panicked. It then gradually moved into a very strong period and, personally, I sold over $50 million worth of real estate over the past 90 days. So it has been a whirlwind quarter to polish off the year. Here’s a breakdown of some of the significant numbers in Coogee and Maroubra over 2020 for you to analyse. In Coogee, where 45% of residents are owner-occupiers and 55% are rentals, there have been 189 sales of apartments this year and 46 sales of houses. Now, the lion’s share of apartment sales were two bedrooms, where the median house price for apartments rose by 17.2%, bringing it to $1,154,000 with two-bedroom apartments in Coogee taking 32 days on average to sell.

The median house price for three-bedroom apartments in Coogee rose by a whopping 27.7%, bringing it to $1.9 million. Interestingly, the median price of both two and three bedroom apartments in Coogee had fallen in 2018 and 2019. So this is a massive turnaround this calendar year in 2020. Three-bedroom houses saw a 10.4% increase, bringing it to $2,501,000, whilst four-bedroom houses registered an increase of 11.4%, bringing it to $2.9 million. Again, both three and four bedroom houses saw declines in 2018 and 2019. So 2020 has proven to be a boom year in the property market. In Maroubra, where 56% of residents are owner-occupiers and 44% are renters, 148 apartments changed hands and 144 houses also transacted. The median sale price of two-bedroom apartments in Maroubra was 880,000, up by 6.3%, and three-bedroom apartments in Maroubra were up a huge 29.9%, bringing it to $1.3 million. Three-bedroom houses in Maroubra saw an increase of only 1.8% in 2020, with the median price being 1,690,000, yet four-bedroom homes registered an incredible 19.1% increase, bringing it to $2,620,000. Now, let’s reflect on that for a moment. The market has said that it values four-bedroom houses in Maroubra nearly $1 million more than three-bedroom houses during the year of 2020.

Now, that’s a staggering premium to pay for an extra bedroom. This is the case due to a growing number of families and also the popularity of the local school catchment zones, which can be quite strict for popular schools based on where you actually live. The overall point is that despite a couple of poor years of real estate in Coogee and Maroubra, 2020 has seen some of the strongest prices in recorded history almost across the board. Of course the numbers were an overall picture, but, for example, I sold 125 Fairsky Street in Coogee for $2.3 million when an identical home had sold the previous week on the same street in that same South Coogee pocket for $250,000 less with another agent. That was just one example of many in the last 90 days where I have achieved premium prices for my vendors using my unique social media and digital marketing strategies that generate multiple offers and, overall, much better prices. Median prices are a very interesting and accurate way to take the pulse of the market but selecting the most effective agent can still make a 10% difference on the price. I hope that insight has been interesting for you. I hope you have a magical Christmas despite the fireworks and the carols being cancelled this year. Be safe, and always remember your home is worth more with Adrian Bo.