Open houses are back on the market following the state government's easing of distancing restrictions.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
From Wednesday morning, real estate agents will be allowed to let up to 10 people through a property, not including the agent and the occupants.
Auctions will also be able to resume.
Open houses were one of the first activities to be banned when heavier restrictions arrived in March.
One agent said there were some positives to the restricted approach - by only allowing private inspections, Ballarat Real Estate's Allister Morrison said, prospective buyers felt they had more time to get a feel for the property and one-on-one time with agents.
That said, he's looking forward to moving towards more traditional open houses and inspections.
"This next step of having open houses and auctions available reinforces confidence in the marketplace," he said.
"Certainly open houses are quite popular because it gives people a period of time to see a range of properties, perhaps on a weekend.
"In instances where there were more than 10 people coming to the property, we would have to have no more than 10 inside at once - so a bit like what people are doing at supermarkets.
"We have to adhere to social distancing guidelines and spacing requirements, so with flats and apartments you'd need an understanding of the square metres.
"It means it'll be back to a pretty normal situation for real estate inspections."
Anyone attending inspections will have to pass on their contact details to agents - Mr Morrison said this is a normal security measure, but would now help contact tracing if an infection occurs.
Houses would also be sanitised, with agents wiping down doors and switches.
"We've been asking attendees not to touch items in the property - perhaps not opening every door and cupboard, or providing gloves," he said.
"Most of the items are pretty common sense, things they would have been doing anyway."
Mr Morrison added Ballarat's market had remained strong during the pandemic crisis so far.
"We've still been selling properties and we haven't seen price decreases in the market, we're finding a lot of vendors are getting solid results," he said.
"A lot of sellers might be thinking the market's no good, there's restrictions, but the opposite is true.
"Even rental enquiries have been pretty strong as well - a lot of tenants have been waiting to get through a lot of properties.
"It's been resilient in Ballarat."
If you are seeing this message you are a loyal digital subscriber to The Courier, as we made this story available only to subscribers. Thankyou very much for your support and allowing us to continue telling Ballarat's story. We appreciate your support of journalism in our great city.