Buyer numbers up as prices rise.
It seems that everyone is talking about how strong demand from home buyers is at the moment, and there’s no doubt that in our part of Melbourne there are far more buyers than there are homes for sale.
Of course, you don’t need to be an economist to know what happens in a market where demand exceeds supply, and we saw confirmation of this during the week when the REIV released its latest house price data. Their report for the December quarter showed that the median house price in Victoria recorded its largest quarterly increase since 2000.
The REIV’s figures indicate that the median price for a house in metropolitan Melbourne has now moved above $900,000 for the first time ever. In fact, the new median house price of $941,000 was an increase of 9.5 per cent on the figure recorded just three months prior in the September quarter.
It seems that with most Melbourne residents spending more time at home than ever due to the impact of the pandemic, there was a lot of pent-up motivation to get out and upgrade our homes as soon as the lockdown conditions were eased!
The REIV’s figures show that house prices in middle Melbourne, a zone that includes many typical suburban family homes such as those found in areas like Thomastown and Lalor, increased by 8.0 per cent from September to December. Importantly, the December quarter median was also 7.3 per cent above the figure recorded one year before in December 2019. This confirms that the market has shrugged off whatever impact the lockdown may have had during the middle of last year.
Whilst unit prices were more subdued than those of houses, units in metropolitan Melbourne still reached a median price of $639,500, which was 2.5 per cent higher than the September quarter and reflected an annual increase of 3.8 per cent.
Figures like these show that with interest rates at record lows and government incentives such as stamp duty cuts and first home buyers grants adding to what were already favourable conditions, the current market is proving to be an excellent time to be buying property in Melbourne’s northern corridor.
With this in mind, I would invite anyone who is keen to make the most of the current market conditions, whether you are wanting to buy, sell or both, to give us a call at Barry Plant Thomastown on 9466 3233 for experienced and objective advice.
In the meantime, I hope you have a safe and relaxing Australia Day weekend, (particularly if you’ve managed to get Monday off)!
Regards,
Con Constantinou
Barry Plant Thomastown