We’ve seen significant improvement in markets across Regional Victoria recently, as the state joins the recovery momentum seen in many markets across Australia.
Our latest survey of market activity shows that, in Regional Victoria, the revival has gone to another level lately.
Our research shows that, in the latest quarter, the number of declining locations has halved and the number recovering locations has more than doubled.
Locations with positive rankings in our survey have increased from 45% of total Regional Victoria locations to 65%, led by a surge in the number of towns and suburbs classified as recovering markets.
53 locations previously ranked as declining or plateau markets are now classified as recovering markets, up from 24 in the previous quarter, while the number of locations with negative classifications have dropped from 71 to 47.
At the same time, locations previously ranked as recovering markets have continued to improve and are now classified as rising markets.
For example, Morwell in the Latrobe Valley was classified three months ago as a recovering market, having arrested the previous decline in quarterly sales – but the latest quarter has delivered a significant uplift in sales, so now we classify Morwell as a rising market.
Similarly, the suburb of Norlane in the Greater Geelong LGA was classified previously as a recovering market, but the latest quarter has delivered a significant uplift in sales, so now we classify Norlane as a rising market.
Others in this category include the towns of Officer and Pakenham in the Cardinia LGA on the south-eastern fringe of Greater Melbourne.
Overall, the latest quarter has seen a major increase in the number of locations categorised as rising markets, led by the usual suspects – Ballarat, Greater Geelong and Bendigo. The three key cities also have significant numbers of consistency and recovering suburbs.
The City of Greater Geelong continues to be a standout market: of the 30 suburbs in our analysis, 22 have positive rankings (rising, consistency and recovering).
Other municipalities where most locations have positive rankings include Cardinia, East Gippsland, Mitchell, Macedon Ranges, Moorabool and Mildura.
Overall, the outlook for property markets across Regional Victoria looks increasingly positive.
More and more locations are joining the national trend towards rising market activity, putting upward pressure on property prices.
