Slowing market but demand still strong for property

LEONGATHA, Wonthaggi and Wimbledon Heights were part of the top 20 places state-wide to be the most affected by a softening property market. 

New research commissioned by online property sales platform Openn identified the top 20 housing markets that have seen their days-on-market increase, while still experiencing stable buyer demand. 

The top 20 list was made up of 12 housing markets and 9-unit markets, spread over Latrobe - Gippsland (8 suburbs), Greater Melbourne (6), Ballarat (4), Geelong (1), and Bendigo (1). 

The research showed that properties at Wimbledon Heights spent 53 days-on-market, an additional 13 days compared to three months ago. 

Units in Wonthaggi spent 33 days, an additional 10.

While for Leongatha, houses spent 10 days longer on the market at 42. 

The typical asking price for Wimbledon Heights was (house) $699,000, Wonthaggi (unit) $469,000 and Leongatha (house) $610,000.

Leongatha’s Alex Scott and Staff branch manager Andrew Newton said while it was too early to determine the town’s exact median price range for 2022, home prices had been increasing drastically since 2020.

Mr Newton highlighted that the median price was $430k in 2020, $515k in 2021 and is now at roughly $615k. 

“If you look at the data throughout the regional towns it’s very similar,” he said.

“But the data for coastal towns is different, like Inverloch, they jumped a lot further.

“But we’re finding Leongatha has settled down and has been for the last three to six months.

“However, the median hasn’t retracted much and it will be another three to six months to gauge where it’s at right now.”

Mr Newton said he believed the housing market in Leongatha has hit its peak and is stabilising, but there is still high demand for median priced properties.

“Properties are still selling within the first month of coming onto the market,” he said.

“The turnover in volume has probably stabilised too, our actual number of properties selling is still relatively the same as it was a year ago.

“Leongatha supply (houses) is still generally pretty good.”

Mr Newton highlighted they’re also seeing an increase of local buyers, bucking the trend of metro-based purchasers. 

“It’s a bit of a mix, the first homebuyer pool is still there, but there’s not as many properties that suits their market,” he said.

“Typically your first home buyers might sit at median and below the median price, but there’s not a lot for sale under the median price in town.”

But with more housing estates also popping up in Leongatha, such as Shamrock Springs, Mr Newton expects this will help get more first-time buyers. 

However, not surprisingly, there’s still a desperate need for rentals.

“We need supply of those but it’s a catch-22,” he said.

“There’s so many people buying properties and they’re absorbing all the rentals and they’re not necessarily investors, they’ve owner-occupiers. 

“Because of the prices being quite high, it’s not as attractive for an investor to buy them.”

And with interest rates also going up again last week, Mr Newton said this also likely to impact rental stock. 

But on a positive note, he highlighted most of the town’s businesses were booming and very few premises are currently vacant.