Bigwigs to attend brokerage opening

Co-principal Shaheen Forouzandeh said he had seen strong growth in the area during the nine years during which he had owned the business and that it was good territory for a broker.

He told The Adviser that the price of a two-bedroom unit had tripled during that time from $120,000 to $350,000.

Mr Forouzandeh said he was confident prices would continue growing for the foreseeable future as demand was outstripping supply.

Aussie chairman John Symond, who will attend the official opening, was also confident about the local market.

“We are seeing a continuing boom in lending levels in the area to both first home buyers and investors and are very bullish about the property market over the next few years,” he said.

Western Sydney has also received a vote of confidence from eChoice broker Robert Spooner, who is based in the neighbouring suburb of Parramatta.

Mr Spooner said there had been such strong price growth that some of his clients had been sitting on pre-approvals for up to nine months.

“I’ve got a drawer full of pre-approvals. People can’t find properties at the moment,” he said.

However, Mr Spooner added that his gut feeling was that the western Sydney boom had now peaked.

Another Merrylands brokerage, Household Financial Services, also feels the market may be cooling.

Director Christopher Abalo said the market had surged in 2013, with clients regularly regretting that they had not bought two or three years earlier when prices were more reasonable.

Mr Abalo told The Adviser that sales in 2014 seemed to be slightly down on 2013 levels.