New data released by the Real Estate Institute of Victoria (REIV) suggests Geelong property price growth is slowing more than both metropolitan and other regional areas.
With the looming reality of regular interest rate rises and the constant discourse around the high cost of living, growth is flattening out across Victoria and the nation.
In general, regional Victoria is outperforming metropolitan areas, sometimes experiencing exceptional price growth as the flee from city living intensifies.
However, according to REIV data Geelong is stagnating at a higher rate than most areas.
While regional Victoria’s median prices are holding strong, showing an average annual increase of 21.6 percent, growth in metro Melbourne has shown a still impressive 13.5 percent annual increase.
The latest REIV data reveals Geelong house prices trailed that in both regional and metro areas with a growth of 11.4 percent since the second quarter of 2021, while unit selling prices are down by 2.6 percent from this time last year.
Despite this slowing growth, Buxton Group Geelong director Tony Moorfoot believes Geelong home owners and investors have no cause for concern.
“Overall, 11 percent over 12 months in pretty amazing in general,” he said.
“The last two years have been spectacular across the board for growth, in Geelong as well as Victoria and across the country.
“It’s definitely started to tighten up, what with interest rate rises and all the talk of cost of living and so forth.
“But overall we’ve got a pretty good market in Geelong. With all the infrastructure we have it’s attracting a lot of metro people moving down to the regional areas.”
Mr Moorfoot highlight the stable nature of the Geelong property market, saying it wasn’t as subject to fluctuation as the Melbourne market.
“I think Geelong’s going to outperform metro moving forward, we’re still very affordable compared to your Melbourne markets,” he said.
“While Melbourne can show dramatic decreases, Geelong generally levels off. I think Geelong’s going to hold itself pretty well, whereas Melbourne generally drops down in these sort of climates.
“But still, 11 percent is a pretty good return, if you bought something 12 months ago you’d be pretty happy with that sort of growth on it.
“There’s no need to panic. Yes, interest rates are going up, but we’ve been pretty lucky for the last decade, and now it’s just going back to the new normal.”
