What the Year of the Snake means for property

Key takeaways

Yes - it will be the year of the Snake.

This is likely to be a year of transformation and growth, where you may face challenges in your career and finances.

But John Lindeman reminds us of some lessons from the past that investors must remember this year.

This Chinese New Year ushers in the year of the Snake, and according to the Chinese Zodiac, this is likely to be a year of transformation and growth, where you may face challenges in your career and finances.

Being optimistic and adaptable will help overcome these setbacks.

For property investors, strategic investments for long-term growth will reap better returns.

Whether or not you believe in these forecasts, many claim that the Chinese Zodiac becomes a “self-fulfilling prophecy” because so many people act in accordance with its predictions that they actually come true.

The prediction itself causes the result.

But did you know that exactly the same events often occur in the property market?

It starts when we hear about certain locations where properties are selling faster than hot cakes.

We are urged to be quick, or we’ll miss out.

More and more investors rush in to buy and so they actually create the shortage that is being predicted.

Such frantic buying often leads to dramatic price rises, but unless the demand is backed by a genuine need for more dwellings, the shortage can become a surplus and prices collapse.

This graph shows how the median price of units on the Gold Coast boomed from 2002 to 2007, nearly trebling in value over just five years.

Buyer demand was fed by huge numbers of overseas investors purchasing off the plan units, but when the Global Financial Crisis arrived in 2008 and many of these owners had to sell, prices crashed.

Always make sure that any property investing opportunity you are interested in is backed by actual demand for housing, and not purely by demand from speculative investors responding to the same messages as you are.

About John Lindeman John Lindeman has well over a decade of experience researching the nature and dynamics of various types of assets at major data analysts and is a leading property market researcher, author and commentator. For more information visit Lindeman Reports.