Geelong follows big market trends to close year

Regional housing markets experienced an expected dip from COVID-charged peaks in 2022, with the Geelong region among the highflyers most impacted by the stabilising conditions.

PropTrack analysed the year’s trends in its 2022 Regional Australia Report and found interest in regional hotpsots had cooled following pressure from economic conditions and slowed migration in the aftermath of the pandemic.

The Geelong SA4 – which covers the urban area plus Bellarine, Surf Coast and Golden Plains – saw some of the largest drops in house prices and buyer interest following the unprecedented peaks of early 2022.

PropTrack senior economist Eleanor Creagh, the report’s author, said the result matched other popular regional markets across Australia in the year and was a predictable result after two years of rapid increases.

“It’s often the case that the upper end of the market experiences larger price declines. Much like the trend we see across the capitals, it’s the comparatively higher value areas within regional Australia that are seeing steeper price falls.”

Geelong was among the regions with the largest jump in vendor discounting, when properties are sold below their list price.

Just 10.1 per cent of properties were sold for less than their listing in October 2021, with that figure up to 44.15 per cent a year later.

The trend was typical of regional Australia’s busiest housing markets, with areas at Wollongong, Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast also in the top 10.

Ms Creagh said rising interest rates were the primary cause of the trend.

“Although the shift is reflective of the change in conditions over the past year, with vendors slowly resetting their price expectations after several months of price falls, discounting still remains below levels seen in 2018/19 nationally.

“For buyers, the increasing willingness of vendors to discount could make it easier to get into the market.”

The Geelong SA4 region was in the top 10 for falls in demand for the October quarter compared with the year before, with 37 per cent less buyers for properties on average.

The figures correlated to a 4.48 per cent drop in prices across the Geelong region from their peak, though median dwelling prices were still about a third higher than pre-pandemic levels of March 2020.

Newtown was the fourth most in-demand suburb in regional Australia in the year to October 2022, based on counts of “highly-engaged” buyers per listing.

But neighbouring Geelong West ranked fifth for suburbs with demand falls compared with a year ago, with 33 per cent less buyers expressing interest in properties, highlighting the volatility of trends.