Downsizers who have sold have the strongest hand

If you have sold the family home and want something smaller near the beach, you are the buyer sellers want. You can exchange without waiting on a sale of your own, and you know exactly what you can spend. The hard part is finding the right home, because many of the best ones never reach the open market.

"We've sold and we're struggling to find the next place." That is how many downsizers open their first call with us. They have inspected plenty of homes, missed out on a few, and found very little on the open market that they actually like.

Should you sell before you buy?

For most downsizers, yes, and if you already have, you have done the hard part. Selling first tells you your budget to the dollar, and it means you can exchange the day you find the right home.

In NSW, a purchase becomes binding when contracts are exchanged, or at the end of a five business day cooling-off period. In practice, it is never subject to the buyer selling their own home first. So a buyer who still has to sell faces a hard choice: buy first and risk owning two homes at once, or wait and keep missing out.

You also have room to move on timing. Settlement usually takes place around six weeks after exchange, but the date is negotiable, and a settlement that suits the seller can win you the home. Plan for the gap between selling and buying. Most downsizers want to avoid moving twice, so many negotiate a long settlement on their sale to give themselves time to find the next home. Where that isn't possible, a short-term rental fills the gap.

Why this market suits a buyer who has sold

Sellers have been waiting longer and accepting less, which suits a buyer who is ready to move. In Newport, for example, over the twelve months to 31 October 2026, houses and apartments both took about two months to sell, and sellers typically accepted around 5% less than they first asked.

Twelve months to 31 October 2026. Source: HtAG Analytics.

Auctions told the same story. Across the Northern Beaches, auctions cleared 48% over July to September 2026, against 65% over the same months a year earlier. That is soft on the scale our Northern Beaches auction results page uses.

None of that makes the right home easy to find. It means that when you do find it, you are well placed to secure it.

Why the right home is hard to find

The homes downsizers want are a small slice of the market, and many of the best are sold before they are advertised. Level access, low maintenance, and a short walk to the beach and the village. Not many homes tick all three, and the ones that do don't come up often. On the latest figures, Newport houses were held for more than 11 years on average.

An off-market home is one sold without being publicly advertised. The selling agent takes it straight to buyers they know and trust. In our experience, many of the homes downsizers want change hands this way, which is why so many of them tell us there is nothing on the market.

One downsizer came to us with an apartment they liked and asked us to help them buy it. Whilst we did start the process on this one, we also presented many other options that the buyer didn't know about.

Because we have strong, long-term relationships with selling agents across the Northern Beaches, we were let through an oceanfront apartment in Newport before the public knew it was for sale. Our client bought that one instead. It was a better home than the one they first brought to us, and they would never have known it existed.

What not to do when downsizing

Don't spend your weekends inspecting homes that were never going to suit. Online photos are taken from the best angle, and they rarely show the details that matter most when you downsize.

• Getting from the street to the front door. Steps, a steep driveway, a long walk from the car. Plenty of homes with a view sit at the top of a long flight of stairs.
• Getting from the building entry to the apartment. Count the steps between the street and the apartment door. Check whether there is a lift, and whether it serves the whole building.
• Styling over substance. A beautifully presented home is easy to fall for. We have heard of downsizers who bought on the styling, then regretted not choosing a home that was easier to get in and out of, and closer to the shops.

Inspect with that list in hand, and you will rule out most of the wrong homes before they cost you a Saturday.

Is strata a new cost?

Not really. Strata levies largely replace costs you were already paying on the house, such as building insurance, repairs and maintenance. The difference is that the owners corporation and its strata manager organise the work for you.

NSW Fair Trading's guide to strata levies explains where the money goes. The administrative fund covers day-to-day running costs, including the building's insurance. The capital works fund saves for bigger jobs, and the scheme must keep a 10-year plan of the major work it expects. You still insure your own contents.

Strata does bring risks a house owner never faced, and many downsizers have not owned in strata before, or not for a long time. Before you buy, the strata report should tell you:

• how much is in the capital works fund, against what the 10-year plan says it will need
• whether any special levies (one-off charges on top of the usual levies) have been raised or are being discussed
• what the minutes of recent meetings say about defects and repairs
• what the by-laws allow, for pets, renovations and parking

You deserve those facts laid out plainly before you decide, not after.

Do people regret downsizing?

Not often, in our experience, and when they do, the purchase is rarely the problem. The priorities set before it are.

One client came to us after downsizing once already, from a house to an apartment. They had chased the view and bought too small. Their grown-up children stayed at home longer than expected, and needed somewhere to come back to. We then found them the right-sized home with room for the family.

That is why we start every search with a property brief: what you need from the next home, written down before you inspect anything, with an objective opinion rather than an emotional one. Room for family to stay. Level access for the years ahead. A walk to the shops, the doctor and the beach.

Do you pay stamp duty when downsizing?

Yes. NSW has no transfer duty concession for downsizers, seniors or pensioners. At the 2026/27 rates, duty on an apartment at Newport's typical price of $1.38 million comes to about $57,000. On a house at $2.77 million, it is about $133,700.

Two other rules are worth knowing, and both run from the sale of your old home.

• The downsizer super contribution. If you are 55 or older and owned the home for 10 years or more, you may be able to put up to $300,000 each from the sale into super. The Australian Taxation Office requires it within 90 days of receiving the proceeds, usually your settlement date, unless it grants more time. If you are still searching, that may come before you know what the next home will cost.
• The Age Pension assets test. The part of your sale proceeds you intend to spend on your next home can be exempt for up to 24 months, and in some cases longer.

These are general rules. Your accountant or financial adviser can tell you how they apply to you.

Before you inspect another home

Your search starts with the brief, and covers the whole market, including homes that are never advertised. Selling agents across the Northern Beaches tell us about homes before they reach the portals, and you hear about the ones that fit.

You only inspect the homes that suit, because the stairs, the strata report and the walk to the village have already been checked. When the right one comes up, your buyers agent negotiates for it, working only for you.

You have done the hard part by selling. You don't have to do the rest on your own.