Recently for the first time in a long time, I’ve had a bit more spare time on my hands having had to change my work habits due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This allowed me the opportunity to read the book “Neale Daniher, When All is Said & Done “. This is about the ex-AFL footballer and Melbourne coach who was diagnosed with the terminal illness MND (Motor Neuron Disease) and how he approached knowing that his days on this planet were limited, his thoughts, beliefs, feelings and his unwavering positive attitude.

Apart from being just an amazing, down to earth, relatable read, this book had one particular chapter called “Success is never final, failure never fatal “which captured my attention mainly because it was about self-belief. And right now, you’re probably wondering what relevance this has to property. Well, you see, when something as negative as COVID-19 is 24/7 in the mainstream media it can be very easy to think, the world is going to end and start believing all these headlines. Maybe it is going to end, maybe it isn’t, but right now when compared with seeing out your last days it puts things into perspective.

I’ve heard everything from predictions of market collapses from all kinds of keyboard economists to buyers thinking they will be purchasing properties at discounted prices as seller’s are desperate to sell. But let’s put things into some perspective here. People will still need a roof over their head, people will move from town to town, city to city, country to country (once travel bans are lifted), people pass away, people age and need to downsize, people graduate, and people move out of home to buy or rent their first home. So, property will always be in people’s discussions in some capacity, no matter what is going on in the world. Once all this has been and gone, yes things will be done a bit differently and yes, the market will, as it always has, be determined by supply and demand, consumer confidence, lending policies and job security. There has always been influences to push the market up and down, we can see these very influences here now, pushing and pulling the market for better or for worse.

So, what I have learned out of reading this book is yes, we may succeed, yes, we may fail, make mistakes etc. but when all is said and done can we also ‘learn’. And my learnings are that if history is anything to go by, then the property market will bounce back. There may be many changes such as policy changes, a change in government and planning policy changes which will shape the world we live in, but these are primarily out of our control. So, I say control the controllable and know that everything that is happening is all part of the bigger picture and that if you decide to buy or sell right now, that’s great, if you don’t, that’s ok. There is one thing you can always count on, and that is that property will always be here in one shape or another and I am thankful for that.