Agents: house sales booming

Alex de Vos
Booming sales figures suggest a healthy housing market in Geelong despite recent falls in median house prices, according to real estate agents.
A survey of real estate agents advertising in the Independent revealed strong interest in properties across the region despite the global economic downturn.
Allpoints@Carr principal Chris Carr said sales were up on last year.
Mr Carr used as an example an auction on Saturday when Allpoints sold a property in Newtown for $426,000, “far beyond the owner’s expectations”.
“We had a crowd of more than 150 people, which goes to show that well-positioned properties will always attract attention and hold their value, even during difficult economic times,” Mr Carr said.
“Most activity has been in the price range up to the mid 300,000s and we believe it’s fueled by the first-home buyers grant.”
Fruit Property Geelong director Peter Julian also reported record sales results.
“Our sales have lifted 190 per cent – we’ve gone from selling eight to 10 per month to selling 26 to 29 properties a month,” Mr Julian said.
He singled out East Geelong, Belmont, Newtown, Hamlyn Heights and Herne Hill as suburbs producing “excellent results”.
North Geelong Real Estate’s Joe Grgic said the agency was struggling to keep up with demand.
“There are not enough properties on the market to meet buyer demand,” Mr Grgic said.
Earlier this week Queensland property researcher RP Data reported a drop in recent median house prices across East Geelong, Geelong, Geelong West, Grovedale, Herne Hill, Highton, Lara, Newtown, Norlane and Waurn Ponds. The figures were interpreted as suggesting house prices had fallen.
However, Buxton’s Ben Riddle said the figures did not reflect the performance of the region’s real estate market.
“RP Data doesn’t list all the information – it’s not a true indication,” Mr Riddle said.
“In nine years I haven’t seen a unique market quite like this with the combination of grants and incentives fuelling the market and the low interest rates. “