Affordability continues to bite homebuyers

GEELONG property is becoming increasingly out of reach for entry-level buyers as new figures reveal a diminishing pool of affordable properties.

PropTrack released its latest Market Insight Report last week, which showed Geelong buyers are finding it harder than counterparts in most capital cities to find properties priced under $600,000.

Fewer than one in five property listings (18 per cent) on realestate.com.au were priced at less than $600,000 in October – the lowest figure ever recorded by PropTrack.

The figure is a sharp drop from before the pandemic, when more than half of properties were listed below that mark.

For houses, the figure is even lower at 14.4 per cent, down from 50.6 per cent.

Units have also become more unaffordable, with just 43.2 per cent priced under $600,000, compared with 69.4 per cent in March 2020.

The trend comes despite a general downturn in overall property value since a peak earlier this year before rising interest rates cooled interest.

Geelong has a smaller proportion of affordable properties than Melbourne where 25.5 per cent of properties are priced under $600,000, with the discrepancy largely due to greater unit stock in the state’s capital.

Geelong’s proportion of affordable houses is only marginally higher than Melbourne’s 13-per-cent share.

Sydney was the only city to have fewer dwellings available for under the benchmark (11.6 per cent), while it and Canberra had less than 2 per cent of houses available at the price.

PropTrack economic research director Cameron Kusher said the trend matched the surges seen elsewhere in Australia and was a product of the real estate market boom during the pandemic.

“The rising cost of housing since the onset of the pandemic has significantly reduced the supply of new listings coming to market under $600,000.

“Prices have now fallen over each month since March 2022, however, the share of new listings under $600,000 has continued to decline.

“The share of new house listings under $600,000 has more than halved since the start of the pandemic in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and regional NSW.

“As prices continue to fall, we may see more properties coming on to the market at lower price points. However, it seems unlikely that we’ll see a significant uplift in the share of new listings under $600,000, which highlights ongoing affordability challenges.”