By Jena Carr
It’s a good time to buy a home in the Greater Geelong region, according to new data from the Real Estate Insitute of Victoria (REIV).
House prices dropped by 4.4 per cent in Geelong during the second quarter of this year, with many areas across the region seeing more than a two per cent movement in each direction.
Drysdale had the biggest median price drop, which fell by 9.4 per cent with a median sale price of $700,000, followed by Barwon Heads (-5.4%) at $1.85 million and Belmont (-4.8%) at $690,000.
Other suburbs to see a more than two per cent quarterly price decrease during the April to June period were Portarlington (-4.6%), East Geelong (-3.5%), and Corio (-2.9%).
Manifold Heights had the largest quarterly growth with an increase of 22.8 per cent and 1.21 million median sale price, while Geelong West rose by 0.5 per cent at $1.01 million.
REIV president Andrew Meehan said it was interesting how Greater Geelong house prices had lowered during the quarter but increased over the past six months.
“As the market’s seen with the quarterly change increase regionally from Victoria, I would expect that to be continuing and would be reflected in the Greater Geelong pricing,” he said.
“The prices are stable, we’re seeing increases elsewhere, so despite them being down for the quarter but up for the six months in Geelong, I’d say it’s a reasonably good time to buy.”
Mr Meehan also said the days on the market for homes were less than the regional average, with many suburbs recording less than 40 days, such as Highton and Corio, which reported “only 31 days”.
“It’s a good time for buyers to be entering the market with a bit of a downturn in the last quarter, but up in the last six months,” he said.
“From what I am hearing there is strong buyer demand which is probably why there’s shorter days on market in the Geelong area.”
