Sell now or wait?

The honest answer is that this is almost never a market question. It is a question about your own circumstances, and the people who get it right are the ones who work out what they actually need before they start reading forecasts.

First, the part I can't do

I cannot tell you what prices will do next year. Neither can anyone else. Interest rates, immigration policy, employment, construction costs and buyer sentiment all feed into it, and the people whose full-time job is forecasting this get it wrong regularly.

What I can tell you is what the market has already done here, which is fact rather than forecast: ten homes sold in Peel Village in a recent fortnight, at an average of 97.8% of asking. Houses here are selling.

What that describes is a market with some room to negotiate, where pricing accurately matters more than timing cleverly. It says nothing at all about next spring.

Reasons to sell now that are actually good

• You need to. A job, a separation, an estate, a health change, a family member needing care. These outrank every market consideration and they always will.
• You're buying in the same market. If you're selling here and buying here, a softer market cuts both ways and largely cancels out. People forget this constantly and wait for a stronger market to sell into — which is also a stronger market to buy in.
• The house is becoming a burden. Sixty-year-old houses ask things of their owners. If the maintenance is now stressful rather than satisfying, that is a legitimate reason and it will not improve on its own.
• Carrying it is genuinely uncomfortable. If the mortgage, taxes and upkeep are tight, waiting for a better price while under financial strain is a bad trade.

Reasons to wait that are actually good

• You'd be listing in December. Seasonality is real in this market. If nothing forces your hand, a spring listing into more buyer traffic is a reasonable thing to want.
• There's specific, cheap work that removes an objection. Not a renovation — the short list on what to fix before you sell. Six weeks and a few thousand dollars can be worth waiting for.
• You can't buy yet. Selling before you know where you're going is how people end up in a rental they hate and a rushed purchase they regret.
• Registering a unit you already have. If there's an unregistered second unit, the time to deal with it is before listing, not during negotiation.

The two questions that actually settle it

1. What do you need this house to do for you in the next two years? Fund a purchase, release equity, stop being a burden, house a family member. Answer that first and the timing usually resolves itself.
2. What happens if you're wrong? If waiting a year and prices falling would genuinely hurt you, don't wait. If it would be annoying but survivable, waiting is a reasonable position. Match the risk to what you can absorb.

Time in the house you want to be in beats timing the market you can't predict. That's true almost every time, and it's the thing that's hardest to hear when you're watching the numbers.

What I'd actually suggest

Get real numbers before you decide anything. What your house would realistically sell for now, what you'd net after costs, and what the thing you'd buy next actually costs. Most people are deciding this in the abstract, and once the real figures are on paper the answer is frequently obvious and often not what they expected.

That costs you nothing and commits you to nothing. If it turns out the answer is wait, I'll tell you to wait — I'd rather be the person you call in eighteen months than the person who talked you into a listing you regretted.

This page is general information about property decisions, not financial advice. For anything involving your mortgage, taxes or an estate, talk to the relevant professional.

Last checked August 2026.