Real estate agents look for offshore buyers

They have tried discounting, now some real estate agents are looking to go offshore to move multimillion-dollar luxury homes in a sluggish market.

"The top end is not turning over quickly and we have to utilise every single marketing opportunity we have," said Paul Spinelli from ParkTrent Wollongong.

The clearance rate of listings for Wombarra for the last six months of 2011 was only 30 per cent, while East Corrimal had a 92 per cent clearance, according to Australian Property Monitor figures.

Mr Spinelli is trialling international marketing with this five-bedroom Blackbutt home built by former Wolves goalkeeper Michael Prodanovic for his family.

It has been discounted to offers above $1.9 million through tender.

"An independent valuation on replacement says this property is worth $3.4 million," Mr Spinelli said. "The owner is prepared to negotiate but there is just not the pool of buyers for this sort of high-end product in Australia."

Mr Spinelli said he was targeting investors through ParkTrent's international links in Malaysia, Singapore, Shanghai and Israel.

Illawarra Property Council chair David Laing supported more aggressive overseas marketing.

He said the region had "amazing" lifestyle attributes to attract commercial investors so it should be no different for the residential market.

"Investors are keen on Australia because it has economic stability, rule of law and a shortage of properties compared to a lot of other countries," Mr Laing added.

Simon Kersten, from Colliers International, which has a global network, said offshore marketing was not as easy as it sounded.

"Technically, most agents these days are marketing offshore by simply posting a property on the internet," he said.

"True global marketing comes down to an agent physically speaking and physically presenting the information to an investor."

Source: http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/news/local/news/general/real-estate-agents-look-for-offshore-buyers/2443533.aspx