More people are getting away from Melbourne’s tough property market by coming to Ballarat, according to data from the last quarter in 2015.
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The Real Estate Institute of Victoria released figures on Wednesday that showed higher increases in median house prices in regional areas like Ballarat than in Melbourne.
Overall, regional Victoria saw an increase of 2.2 per cent to $353,000 versus Melbourne’s 0.1 per cent drop to $718,000 in the busy spring period.
Allister Morrison from Ballarat Real Estate said he had seen a strong finish to 2015 that supported these statistics.
“We found the end of the year very strong,” he said.
“(And) there is definitely a bit of a trend of people outside of Ballarat recognising the median house price is effectively half of Melbourne’s here.”
“They look at Ballarat, for half the price they get fantastic real estate, services close-by, good schools, it’s a pretty good value proposition.”
The REIV put Lake Wendouree and Redan in the top areas for median price increases in the fourth quarter.
Lake Wendouree went up 5.5 per cent to $670,000 and Redan saw an increase of 5.3 per cent to $266,500.
Mr Morrison said this was positive as it saw high demand on each end of the Ballarat property spectrum.
REIV CEO Enzo Raimondo said people were still looking to stay close to Melbourne, and this meant areas within 90 minutes were seeing the bulk of the new arrivals
“We’ve seen prices in major regional areas within 90 minutes of Melbourne grow in price, suggesting city commuters are looking further afield for lifestyle and value reasons,” he said.
“Many regional centres within commuting distance of Melbourne are increasingly sought-after by those priced out of the Melbourne market.”
Mr Raimondo said growth in centres further out, like Bairnsdale or Mildura, was driven people retiring or just looking for more relaxed lifestyles.
On the rental side of the local market, Mr Morrison said it was recently very active as people get ready for the year ahead.
“There’s a pretty steady stream of investors (in Ballarat), because they can still get a positive return in many instances,” he said.
“The vacancy rate is pretty attractive too. Right now it’s a peak time for rentals, with university students going back, people coming for new jobs, there’s a lot of movement in the rental market.”
REIV estimated earlier in January the Ballarat vacancy rate had gone down 0.1 per cent to 2.7 per cent in the last quarter.
alex.hamer@fairfaxmedia.com.au
