“I’ve been involved in this industry 25 years and seen nothing like it,” selling agent Joe Recep of NG Farah Real Estate said. “We had 30,000 enquiries on the property in four weeks—from UAE [United Arab Emirates], Dubai, America, New Zealand and all the Asian countries."

It’s the top end of the market that’s really motoring. Cashed-up buyers returning from overseas and wealthy locals kept in the country by Australia’s closed borders are prepared to pay eye-watering amounts for a desirable lifestyle.

D’Leanne Lewis, a principal at real estate agency Laing+Simmons in the tony eastern suburb of Double Bay, sold homes worth a record A$60 million in a single day in May—more than she had ever previously sold in a month.

Among the five houses Lewis sold on her banner day was an eight-bedroom, nine-bathroom property in Bellevue Hill, an expensive area in the city’s east. It was snapped up pre-auction for $25 million—almost 40% above its advertised price—and more than triple the $7 million it sold for just five years ago. While palatial, it doesn’t have the waterfront views or access you’d normally expect in Sydney at that price.

“It’s crazy but does make sense when you think about it,” says Lewis. “Being locked down in a place like Sydney does not feel so dismal when you compare it to the rest of the world. People are looking for a safe haven.”

U.S.
In the wealthy enclave of Greenwich, Connecticut, you can’t even bank on being able to see a property before you put in an offer.

Shut out of appointments to view a just-listed $1.55 million house, one set of homebuyers decided to make a cash offer above asking price anyway. Their only condition was to be allowed into the house once before signing the contract.

“It was accepted as the highest and best bid, and they’d never been in the house,” said Mark Pruner, a broker with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices in Greenwich. “There were all these other people lined up for appointments in 15-minute intervals for two days.”

U.S. home prices jumped the most in 30 years in April, with even more dramatic increases in many suburban and rural areas. At the peak of the pandemic, Greenwich attracted exiles from New York City—and they’ve kept coming ever since. Signed contracts for single-family homes more than tripled in May from a year earlier to 165, according to appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate. And that’s after a first quarter when the median price of home sales surged 31% to $2.24 million.

In Manhattan, sales have picked up in recent months too, but that’s largely thanks to the prospect of discounted prices. By contrast, buyers pushing deep into the outer boroughs in search of more spacious homes are facing bidding wars.

Things are even hotter in more remote areas of the U.S. Take Boise, Idaho, a picturesque city of roughly 225,000 set against the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. An influx of buyers from California and other more expensive states has sent the market wild: Prices at the start of June were up 42% from a year earlier, according to brokerage Redfin. In April, eight in 10 offers made by its customers faced bidding wars.

Desperate buyers are doing whatever they can to secure a deal—including promising not to actually move in. Shauna Pendleton, a local Redfin broker, said one vendor negotiated the right to stay in the property for five months on a peppercorn rent until their new home was built.

“Sellers know they’ve got power in this market, they know they hold the cards and that they pretty much make the rules,” Pendleton said.

U.K.
Buying a U.K. property right now is nerve-jangling. Almost a quarter of homes sell within a week, according to estate agents Hamptons International, many before they even hit the property portals.

The intense competition is leaving would-be-buyers like Alyson Nash, 63, and her husband out in the cold. They sold their family farmhouse last year and moved into rented accommodation so they could hunt commitment-free for a property near Guildford, a commuter hub in England’s southeast.