Melbourne Property News Monthly Wrap – November 2019

Amazing Spring brought a booming recovery.

Over November’s 5 weekends more than 4,340 auctions were reported to the Real Estate Institute of Victoria (REIV). There were approximately 2,223 sales at auction. 947 properties were passed in with 391 of those on a vendor bid. The clearance rate averaged 74%, down slightly on October’s 75.25%.

Melbourne’s property market is in high gear and great spirits as we speed towards Summer. There’s a surge of competitive buying at auction as people strive to get into their next home before Christmas.

Melbourne’s surprisingly rapid value recovery has continued through November. The CoreLogic Home Value Index claims Melbourne home values rose 2.2% over the month making it a 6.4% gain for the quarter. 

It looks like Melbourne’s median will reach a new record high in January 2020 (CoreLogic).

In fact, the NAB’s latest Residential Property Survey has also just predicted a house price rise of 7.4% across 2020. But this is guesswork and we’ll have to wait and see.

The triggers for this energetic rebound were the Coalition’s unexpected election win, plus interest rate cuts, plus tax cuts, plus APRA’s loosened restrictions on lending. Underwriting these drivers is intense population growth, that has added a million more residents in the last eight years, producing an explosion in housing demand.

The factors for a healthy market keep adding up – like current perceptions of better affordability (created by the downturn), teamed with a supply shortage, which is 16% smaller than this time last year.

So it’s both a good time to buy, and a good time to sell!

According to Realestate.com.au (Chief Economist Nerida Conisbee) there are still plenty of suburbs offering very good buying – Bulleen, Rosanna and Box Hill South for example, which are still down more than 20% from 12 months ago.

All this means local market conditions are stable at present and moves can be made with some surety. However, more cautious commentators are saying the current growth surge may turn out to be a short-term boom only. Government regulators are likely to step in again if prices inflate too quickly and mortgage debt levels shoot too high.

Craig Knudsen
Principal Advisor
Vendor Marketing

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