Metropolitan Melbourne now more accessible to homebuyers

Houses in Melbourne are now priced under $1m, opening up opportunities for more buyers to break into the market despite the rate increases.

According to the quarterly report from the Real Estate Institute of Victoria (REIV), houses in metropolitan Melbourne fell 7.4% by the end of September to $993,000.

REIV President Andrew Meehan said the September quarter had created attractive buying opportunities for Victorians, while strong longer-term market fundamentals prevail.

“Lower median prices through the September Quarter have created new opportunities for Victorians to buy more affordably in Melbourne, particularly in the outer suburbs,” he said.

Despite the slowdown, many million-dollar suburbs continued to climb on a quarterly basis, including the following:

• Williamstown – up 8.6% to $1.65m
• Surrey Hills – up 6.2% to $2.17m
• Mount Waverly – up 4% to $1.59m
• Keysborough – up 3.1% to $1.01m
• Burwood – up 1% to $1.4m

Meanwhile, regional Victoria also witnessed a decline for both house and unit prices, down 2.8% to $603,000 and down 2.3% to $422,500, respectively.

There are regional suburbs, however, that still reported price gains during the period, including Heathcote ($570,000), Morwell ($354,000) and Wodonga ($530,000).

On an annual basis, both regional and metropolitan markets witnessed solid gains in prices, up 15.5% and 9%, respectively.

Mr Meehan said the upwards trends in the annual data suggest that there is a substantial long-term confidence supporting both transaction activity and real estate prices across the state.

“It is pleasing to see property transactions have not slowed materially, with a high volume of vendors listing their properties and plenty of undeterred buyers,” he said.

“Looking ahead, these factors, combined with the RBA’s lower-than-expected rate rise in October, are an encouraging sign of our real estate market’s long-term health.”

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