If you’re looking to secure a new home at a reasonable price then you might be better off jumping into the property market sooner rather than later, with history telling us that February is the month that buying competition starts to ramp up.

Of course, if the year 2020 taught us anything it’s that we should always expect the unexpected, but in year’s past property transactions have been known to slow down over December and January as both buyers and sellers take some time out from the market to attend celebrations or go away on holidays.

Generally only the most serious buyers continue their search over December and they might have secured a great price due to the lack of competition. The rest tend to wait until after the New Year to start putting their buying plans into action.

There are plenty of good reasons why buyers will be eager to jump into the property market in 2021 too, such as record low interest rates and attractive government incentives like HomeBuilder and the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme, and they will keep buyer demand strong for some time.

Prices might go up, but so will choices

If you stayed away from the market over the festive season then don’t be too dismayed, because while you may have been able to snare a relative bargain, there might not have been a lot of property choice around anyway.

Data from SQM Research showed that residential listings on the market were down 7.9 per cent in December compared to the previous month.

Although it should be noted that listings were up from the previous year in Sydney and Melbourne, where people may have been playing catch-up on the market after lockdown restrictions eased.

So if you have been looking for a property and haven’t been able to find what you’re looking for, you might actually have more luck from this month onwards.

To beat out the competition you’ll want to have all your ducks in a row though. That means having finance ready to go, being ready to attend inspections and making a reasonable offer as soon as you get the chance – otherwise you could risk missing out!