The market continues to change and is influenced by external pressure that we see in society today. At Cabin Connect we have seen a large number of listings hitting the market, for a range of reasons. One of the most common reasons that people are selling is the financial struggle to keep up with the payments of the annual site fees, and the need to recoup some of the money they have invested into their cabin.
When times were good, interest rates were low and we would often see people purchasing cabins over $100,000 and to pay for these, they would redraw off their mortgage.
Now, some people may think this is risky, but at the time people generally had equity in their home, and interest rates were low. Therefore, many people saw this as a great opportunity to purchase the annual site they’d always dreamed of in their perfect location.
Fast forward to 2023-2024, and interest rates have risen. The cost of living crisis is very real, and people are finding it hard to pay off extra debt and to keep up with site fees that in some instances are as high as $10,000 per year .
Due to this, we have seen a range of new listings added to the platform. We have also seen cabins added to the platform that have been flood affected, repaired and are now ready for sale.
In our experience with selling cabins over the past 15 years, this situation that we find ourselves in, has very similar characteristics to that of the global financial crisis (GFC).
During the GFC, Cabin Connect was born, and people were buying and selling cabins at reduced values. The sellers were selling to get out of the market and to preserve cash. The buyers were snapping up great deals as with every market, and in all circumstances, there are winners and losers.
In recent years, we have seen people winning on cabins with most cabins going up in value rather than declining. This is a strange phenomenon because cabins are a depreciating asset, yet we would see cabins listed and increasing their selling price year after year.
The questions we have to ask ourselves are, is the market just correcting itself? How long will it be like this? And will cabin prices go up again or will they continue to decrease or plateau?
The answer we have to all of these questions is, we’ll have to wait and see because only time will tell.
