Ballarat real estate market surges ahead of regional Victorian average

According to the report, regional Victoria's median house value broke the half-million-dollar barrier for the first time in the quarter ending March 2021, reaching $510,500 while metropolitan Melbourne cracked $1 million first time.

Regional Victoria's growth was a 4.1 per cent increase over the previous quarter and 12.3 on the year.

Within Ballarat, most suburbs saw rises in their median price on the last quarter, with the largest recorded in Ballarat North, from $395,000 to $573,000, and Delacombe, from $445,000 to $478,000.

Ballarat Real Estate principal Ron Morrison said while median prices increased, Ballarat's property market remained accessible to first home buyers.

"In Ballarat, if you start off with a modest home and get into the market, like most people during their life, you'll graduate up," he said.

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"Most of the people around me bought a modest home to start and upgraded as they went on. With all the assistance around for helping you get into the market, I think I would encourage people to do so."

Mr Morrison said part of the rise in Ballarat's market has been caused by the difficulty in buying property in Melbourne.

"For many years, I've been in the game over 40 years, I've noticed we're virtually half the price of Melbourne real estate so it's possible to get in here while it's difficult there with the media price around a $1 million," he said.

"It emphasises the benefit of buying in Ballarat and we don't have the radical fluctuations in the market they have in Melbourne."

Wilson Estate Agents sales executive Gary Stewart said it was harder for first home buyers to enter the market in Ballarat. "It is becoming harder and the advice we give to first home buyers is to have their finance pre-approved before they put in offers on properties because they are up against strong competition," he said.

"There are still some reasonably priced properties in the market that suit first home buyers but they have to be ready to strike right away.

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"They need to pick up the phone as soon as they see it, don't wait for an open for inspection because a lot of homes are listed prior to the weekend and are sold before the open for inspection."

Both agents agreed the new-found ability to work from home was another factor in the heavy interest in Ballarat.

"I believe that's a massive influence on the market here and people realise it's so simple to work a couple days from home and if you need to attend meetings, it's easier to get to Melbourne from here than other areas of Melbourne," Mr Morrison said.

"We're also seeing people wanting to make a tree-change. I think COVID has a little bit to do with that where they want to get out of the city and into a less densely populated area," Mr Stewart said.

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