Our five most-read blogs of 2020

From a crazy run following our 2019 Federal Election result to our market being plunged into mask-wearing, COVID-fearing purchase activity, this year has been one out of the box.

It was interesting to climb into Google Analytics to see what our data said about our readers, and even more intriguing to challenge some of the popular blogs and draw some parellels.

Enjoy what the clicks say about our readers, and the crazy year that was 2020.

The first, and overwhelmingly most-read blog is our “Under Offer” article. With over four thousand unique views and an average page visit of just over six minutes, it’s clear that this write-up has struck a chord for many. Or, maybe it’s answered an important question that has struck more this year than we anticipated.

Considering this post was written at the beginning of 2019, (almost two years ago) the relevance of it in 2020 is evident.

Given our stock levels were so excruciatingly tight this year, many buyers who were confined to their living rooms for months on end would have sighed with exasperation every time they were greeted with those words when they called a selling agent about a property of interest;

Under Offer

It should come as no surprise that number two for the year was following the COVID-19 pandemic hitting our shores.

Not only did it spark enormous health fears, but it created a consumer panic in a way that many of us never envisaged. From supermarket shelves being stripped bare to buyers putting their house purchase plans on hold, we saw what happens when something outside of our control threatens our economic outlook.

People don’t make substantial purchases.

COVID-19 articles and blogs came at us from all angles, so it was unsurprising that our subsequent COVID-19 blogs didn’t feature in our top five blogs of the year.

Number three is about the humble villa unit, and this 2018 evergreen has kicked on and continued to be searched up. Maybe it’s because the term villa is so diversely used, or perhaps a Melbourne villa is a confusing term for many.

This subsequent villa article we posted tackles the possibility of a ratio being applied in an effort to determine whether a villa unit is over- or under-valued.

The fourth article was a joy to write, given our natural affinity towards Victorian terraces in a city that exhibits them so superbly.

And lastly… our fifth most popular blog is yet again an evergreen dating back to 2017……

the dreaded valuation shortfall.

This was the most surprising, most perplexing of the year’s top five because 2020 enabled Melbourne buyers something that past years have neglected to offer; a subject to finance clause.

So many 2020 buyers have had the comfort of being permitted a condition in their contract, most often a finance condition. Unlike other years when auction activity was rife and buyers were either forced to bid unconditionally or miss out altogether, this crazy year allowed us a few quirks.

For many reasons, 2020 will be the year we’ll never forget/would rather forget. But for the real estate industry, it marked a year of adversity, adaptation and peer-support.