Covid no obstacle to buyer demand

A surge in buyers to Geelong and the Surf Coast has been confirmed by CoreLogic’s most recent Regional Market Update, which reports 4,627 house sales in 12 months to October 2020.

Greater Geelong made up just over 4,000 of these house sales in addition to 803 unit sales, 19% up on the previous 12 months.

Greater Geelong median house price has risen 4% and now sits at $596,000, with units seeing a 2% rise to a current median of $425,000.

The Surf Coast has seen a 14.9% rise in house sales with 533 houses being sold in the past twelve months.

Unit sales were the standout on the Surf Coast with a 69.2% increase in sales, which confirms the recent release of several townhome/apartment projects have hit a spot in the market.

The Surf Coast median house price has risen 5.1% to $955,000 and units up 2.8% to a median of $668,000.

Tightly held Queenscliff saw 77 house sales, up 8.5% and a median house price of $1,043,000, up 5.6% on the previous 12 months.

Of the 50 separate regional house and unit markets CoreLogic included in their latest analysis, 41 have seen values rise over the 12 months to October.

Houses were the better performer over the year, with 23 regions recording a rise in the value of houses.

Across the unit market, 18 regions recorded a rise in unit values over the year to October.

Agents have been reporting a significant increase in buyer demand over the past six months but have been hampered by a shortage of stock as many vendors sit tight until the pandemic related restrictions on movement dissipate.

One Agency Surf Coast director Shaun O’Callaghan says that whilst Melbourne buyers are now actively researching and subsequently buying property, they are not the only driving force.

“Local and regional buyers are a powerful group as well and, in many cases, local buyers are successful in a market that is absolutely red hot,” Mr O’Callaghan said.

“The level of competition has outperformed any other year in recent memory.

“All of the properties that we are selling through our office are receiving multiple offers, at times five and six offers are submitted.

“The vast majority are selling well above expectation, above the asking price.

“Attempting to rely on past sales as a reference to the potential value of an upcoming property is becoming increasingly difficult because the sales that occurred three months ago are no longer relevant given that the market has been increasing over the past three to four weeks.

“It’s so hard for buyers when they miss out and there are less homes than there are buyers, which are great circumstances for potential sellers and our database of qualified buyers is absolutely phenomenal.”

CoreLogic’s head of Australian research Eliza Owen said there has been a high level of interest as to whether the pandemic has spurred housing demand in regional markets of Australia.

“Housing market data is partially suggestive of this, especially across the largest capital cities.

“The latest CoreLogic indices show growth across regional housing markets is higher than the capital cities in both quarterly and annual terms.

“Values across the combined regional market increased 4.8% over the year, compared with 3.7% across the capital cities.”