Monthly Property Update- March 2018
By | 8th Mar 18

This is our March Property Update with insight into how the market is performing so far for 2018 and what we see ahead.

Melbourne's property market has started solidly and it looks like it has started where it left off last year. Clearance rates have been on average in the vicinity of around the early to mid 70% range which again shows that it continues to be a sellers' market. We continue to see record results as Melbourne saw a new record result when the Stonnington mansion in Melbourne sold for $52,500,000, easily surpassing the record $40,000,000 sale in St Georges Road, Toorak last year. There continues to be many strong results as seen again at a property on Point Avenue in Beaumaris selling for $725,000 over reserve and we are regularly seeing results like Barkly Avenue, Richmond where a house sold for $420,000 over reserve.

 

In good news for investors, there is talk now that APRA will remove the 10% cap on investor lending. This really knocked a lot of investors out of the market in the last couple of years as APRA made it harder from late 2014 for investors to borrow funds. This will be welcome news for many of our investors. We expect the sub $750,000 market to be red hot as it is already being driven by First Home Buyers as they are now about 28% of the market and investors have dropped to be around 36% of the market. They were much higher before the change in the APRA laws and have almost halved when they tightened the rules on lending.

 

Melbourne continues to be the strongest city in our nation in the property market sector. It achieved the highest capital growth gain in the last twenty years, averaging 335% growth which is a massive 16.7% average per annum. This clearly shows that Melbourne continues to be the place that people want to live and having won the World’s most liveable city seven years running, it continues to be highly sought after by locals wanting to migrate here and also is favoured by many people from overseas wanting to call Melbourne home.  Our median house price has now jumped to $903,859 which is an all time high and we are fast catching up to Sydney’s median house price, although we still offer much better value for money opportunities than Sydney’s property market.

 

Please don’t hesitate to check out our website for more information about our popular Buyer’s Advocate, Sellers Advocate, Owner’s Corporation and Property Management services and our latest newsletters as well as our future Group Block opportunities including our block of two bedroom art deco apartments (without parking) in Duke Street, St Kilda which we have now negotiated the purchase of from $483,000-$541,000 each (contact Megan for the Saturday inspection time). We are also taking registrations of interest for a block of four 2 bedroom villa units in Reservoir (approximately $450,000 each), block of five 2 bedroom villa units in Oakleigh South (approximately $500,000 each) and a block of four 2 bedroom villa units in South Kingsville (approximately $495,000 each). Please register your interest by contacting mfairbank@advantageproperty.com.au