Real Estate and ‘shelter’ is seen in these lockdown times as ‘essential’ business. As such, properties are still being actively listed and sold here in Port Douglas.

Since around 80% of prospective buyers are interstate the prospect of hopping on a plane to come and view is now not an option.

Previously, Port Douglas has had sight unseen properties viewed online and bought without any shoe leather alighting on any tropical tiles, so it is not an unknown phenomenon here.

In these hunker down times people are now finding the time to become armchair prospectors as they search for their next investment/retirement/seachange property.

The enquiries regarding rural properties with acreage or the SMSF investors are still hot and trotting to the property market in Port Douglas.

As Darwin said “It is not the strongest that survive, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is most adaptable to change”. Certainly in these Coronavirus lockdown days ‘normal’ has ceased to exist and flexibility to adjust to the new ‘normal’ is important on a personal and a business level.

Luckily, with technological advancements communication is still possible and the real estate industry is keeping ahead of the game. With around 80% of interest in the Port Douglas property market being generated from Australia’s southern states this is an important game changer.

The development of virtual 360 tours, where a person can ‘walk’ with their computer mouse through a property and looking around rooms at all angles, is only a miniscule step away from the real thing.

The figures show that prospects are embracing this new technology and that they are actually working.

A property that I listed eight days ago received 400 virtual tour views (at an average of 4 mins 2 seconds each). That’s a lot of property armchair searches. Last week a rural property in Julatten sold purely on the back of the virtual tour, now that’s one strong marketing tool!

Realeste.com stats show that virtual tours being viewed on properties has increased by a whopping 357%. Interestingly the stats on people searching properties is up by 35% year on year.

Google trend analytics show a Matterhorn-shaped leap around March 2020 for people searching for ‘virtual tours’ (with southern Australians being the most active).

Along with 360 virtual tours, sales agents are now successfully clicking their record video button on their phones and doing their own simple yet effective tours of their properties.

Once you love what you see, then there is always the option of having a one on one virtual inspection using Facetime/Skype where the agent can walk you through the property and you have the ability to ask your sales agent to open cupboard doors, see the window views, turn on taps and see the size of the pantry, all at your voice request. Your sales agent can help you load the suitable app on your smartphone or tablet to be able to achieve this.

Even on a personal inspection of a property, finding tell-tale cracks of structure stress, or the tiny nibbles of pesky termites wouldn’t be possible. As such, for peace of mind a building and pest inspection should be carried out before finalising your purchase to ensure peace of mind. Your Port Douglas realestate agent can give you details of local inspectors.

And for ultimate peace of mind you can secure the property by making an offer subject to a satisfactory personal inspection once restrictions have lifted.

This confidence in the Port Douglas market is reflected in the steady hum of enquiries that are being received at present and the virtual tour viewing figures. Using these tools enables hesitant viewers to turn into confident buyers and gives Port Douglas sellers an effective sales tool for these COVID-19 times.

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Rosie Wang is a Real Estate Agent with Ray White Port Douglas