You may have seen the national property price plummet of 20% reported in the media recently. What does this mean for local buyers and sellers, and even local renters here in Lismore though?

Local Lismore Real Estate agents give us the news on what the national property price plummet will mean for our city, and whether there has already been an impact noticed.

Andrew Gordon, Principle of R Gordon & Son Property Agents and Lismore City Councillor told us "I don't believe there has been any impact here yet, and may not be at all. We are historically delayed in these market cycle trends."

"This is an interesting time for our community, we have a large number of homes on offer for rent, 104 on realestate.com.au to be exact, numbers like this I haven't seen since the 90's, so that will mean there is opportunity for our city to regenerate, and I believe that these homes are very liveable," Andrew added.

"We have had a number of open homes, this past weekend, and they were well attended still, for sales. Our rental inspections still have people attending, and we won't be likely to see a downturn in rental rates unless there are no people attending, which is unlikely."

(R Gordon and Son has this property for sale in Peter Street, East Lismore)

"Enquiry has slowed, but I don't put that down to this national average decrease in property prices, I put that down to the holiday period, people are distracted, spending time with their families, it's always been a difficult period. Having said that, properties are still selling. Is it at a reduced rate? It's certainly not at 20% reduction, but there is always a negotiation. That's within the normal ranges currently."

"I don't feel it's affected Lismore yet. Nationally we will see a change in pricing, if you lose 20% this year, but went up 100% in the past few years, you aren't that worse off."

"Also, loss is only calculated at the point of sale. If you have no intention of selling you haven't lost anything."

"In the floodplain, there is definitely a different atmosphere, not a lot to buy, but generally speaking, there is less supply, due to the processes still being engaged with the NRRC".

Which will no doubt, take time to work through, before a real indication of where the market lies thereafter, can be assessed.

Principle Katrina Beohm of Katrina Beohm Real Estate who has been working in the industry here for the past 18 years, told the Lismore App adversely that "there has been a definite decline, approximately 50% in regards to property values in the past 12 months."

"I'm really feeling for the people who purchased at the height of the boom in the past 12-24 months, who may have spent money to further add value to their properties, who then had flood damage, and now are dealing with this interest rate rise and inflation. Building supplies additionally went up 40%, so they really were hit from every angle."

"There may be some positive reprieve however if they were financed under a fixed rather than a variable interest rate, which may mean that for now and the next couple of years, they won't feel the impact."

"We have still had great attendance at our open homes, and my gut feeling is that Lismore won't feel any further price decreases, based on this than it has already seen."

Particularly apparent in the flood zone, where we lost 2000 homes in the 2022 floods, Katrina says "I highly doubt there are many more families back in that area, than at the 7-month mark (we were told 1 in 5 households were back in their homes at that point). This is still so apparent when I drive around and talk to people. A lot of people left.

Andrew Gordon agreed, saying "at this stage, people who have left, have moved on, they have their kids in new schools, new jobs, and have settled into new communities, it's unlikely that we will see them coming back, however, there are still plenty of people moving to the region, and while there is concern around the decrease in population figures, which we won't fully understand until the next Census figures come back, there are people still wanting to make Lismore their home."

"I'd like to encourage people to recognise what's happened, with a positive outlook for Team Lismore, we are doing our bit to help repopulate, and as I recall, after 2017, by 2021 things were feeling great here in Lismore, business was going well, there was so much going on."