Vendor hopes dashed in Australia's most discounted suburbs

First published 26/03/2012

“You can’t always get what you want” according to the Rolling Stones classic and it’s definitely true for the suburbs featured in the country’s top 20 locations for vendor discounts – where recent price falls and lacklustre demand have seen sellers settle for up to 24% lower than what they originally asked.

If you’re trying to sell a unit on the Sunshine Coast’s Pelican Waters or Peregian Springs, prepare to be disappointed. The average vendor in these areas is slashing a respective 24% and 23% off of their original asking prices, discounts that equate to some $90,000.

This is according to December RP Data figures, which indicate that these and other Queensland suburbs such as Bilinga and Hollywell, on the Gold Coast, and Torquay, on the Fraser Coast, are among some of the hardest markets to settle on an original selling price for a unit.

Vendor discounts are calculated using the difference between the average initial asking price in a locality and the final price upon exchange of contract.

High vendor discounts can often indicate a market where sellers’ price expectations far exceed what the market will pay, but can also indicate markets that have experienced a drop in demand, with a resulting slide in median house prices.

The latter would certainly seem true for Queensland’s North Booval, near Ipswich, which saw median house prices drop 46% in the 12 months up to December. Brisbane suburb Rocklea has also seen median house prices tumble, recording a 22% slide over the same period.

Outside of Queensland, suburbs where vendors are settling for far less than their original prices include Western Australian mining centre Kambalda West and Greater Melbourne suburb Kew East.

The table (below) excludes suburbs where median prices exceed $750,000.

 For more in-depth analyses, forecasts and insights into where property markets are going, grab a copy of the latest Your Investment Property, available at news agencies, or subscribe by clicking here. This data was complied using RP Data December figures and excluded all suburbs with median prices are over $750,000.