By The RealEstate Conversation
An increase in owner-occupier demand has led Place Projects to put a renewed focus on buyer management in its latest recruitment campaign.
The agency has put the call out for "experienced salespeople who like working with buyers" to help them launch a series of new projects in Brisbane.
Place Projects Director Bruce Goddard told WILLIAMS MEDIA a decrease of investment demand had meant they were catering more to the local market.
"The game has changed for us," he said.
"It's now about owner-occupiers more than investors, which is why we are after buyer management from our salespeople.
"An investor decision is probably quicker because it is based on yields and jamming in as many bedrooms in as possible.
"It's a very different sell to the owner-occupiers, especially if they are moving out of a house and into an apartment."
Mr Goddard said the agency first noticed an excess in investor stock "about three years ago", leading the agency to redesign some of its projects.
"There were thousands of these one or two-bedroom projects designed for offshore investors, which went wild," he said.
"Then there was an overhang of investment stock, which has pretty much been cleared out since."
"A couple of years ago, we got our developers to start redesigning projects to include three-bedroom, two car spaces, and extra storage."
"Now we are dealing with people just down the road, instead of going through offshore intermediaries."
Place Projects has a variety of residential projects in the pipeline, with the first of its launches to be held in the coming weeks.
Mr Goddard said the candidate they are looking for may not even need to have a real estate background.
"We're looking for that male or female who is in their mid-40s who understand the lifestyle of the people we are selling to," he said.
"They need to be able to deal with the ageing population because they are the ones not using debt."
"We don't necessarily have that skillset on board at the moment because we have come out of investment-style selling.