But speaking of buffers, there are many starting to argue that the 3% serviceability buffer applied to new home loan applications should be reduced. This of course would increase the amount buyers could be pre-approved for. As much as this would further buoy the market and potentially increase prices, after seeing interest rates soar well past the serviceability buffer in the last 10 months, I would suggest that continued caution would be a far better approach.

Personally, when we are dealing in such large sums of money, caution should always be deferred to. Yes, I am presently quietly optimistic about the future of our local market but I never bought into all the doom and gloom of the last 12 months in the first place.

For all those buyers that have told me they were waiting until the middle of 2023 to buy because they thought prices would drop like a stone, I think now might be the time to reconsider your plans. Sure, things can change again but the future is so unknown that perhaps a better course of action is just to build in your own contingency and serviceability buffer just in case things go pear shaped … you know that common say, prepare for the worst but hope for the best.