State of Melbourne Inner Urban Residential Property Market
Mike Bird sits down with Leonard Teplin, Director at Marshall White & Co
In this episode of Market Insights Live, we speak with Leonard Teplin, one of Melbourne's most experienced off-the-plan sales directors, about buyer confidence, product quality, marketing strategy, and what it really takes to sell premium new apartments in the inner east.Leonard shares insights on:
- Why the downsizer remains the most resilient buyer in an uncertain interest rate environment and how to create urgency with them
- How over-regulation of minimum apartment sizes is killing product diversity and locking out the buyers who need it most
- Why having a builder appointed before launch is now a non-negotiable for serious developers
- How the best developers win sales by being available, responsive, and genuinely invested in the process well beyond business hours
- Where marketing budgets are being wasted and where they should actually be going
Whether you're a property developer, investor, or agent, this episode is a candid masterclass in what separates the best off-the-plan campaigns from the rest.
📌 Key Takeaways:
- Downsizers buy on lifestyle fit and proximity to family (not interest rate cycles) making them the most dependable buyer pool in a soft market
- Government regulation on minimum apartment sizes is homogenising the market and pricing out the buyers who most need affordable, well-located housing
- Quality renders are the single highest-returning marketing investment; expensive printed brochures are the lowest
- First-mover advantage in underserved suburbs consistently outperforms competing in oversupplied, high-profile markets
- The best developers treat the sale as a partnership with their agent: available nights, weekends, and whenever a buyer needs to be closed
Overview
- Buyer Confidence Today
- Creating Urgency in Uncertainty
- Common Buyer Objections
- Supply and Underserved Suburbs
- Competition vs Scarcity
- Regulation and Product Diversity
- Apartment Mix and Pricing Logic
- Investors and Interstate Buyers
- Trust, Builders, and Delivery Certainty
- Developer Involvement and Service
- Marketing Has Changed
- Best and Worst Spend
- Suburb Picks and First Mover Edge
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