Our million-dollar blitz
GEELONG has announced itself on the national real estate stage as new figures show the number of million-dollar sales in the city has quadrupled in 10 years.
New analysis provided exclusively to the Advertiser shows the proportion of house sales over $1 million has jumped to 4 per cent of the market in 2017, from just 1 per cent in 2007.
That climb is in line with other regional cities as a CoreLogic analysis confirmed that over the 12 months to June 2017, 15.4 per cent of all house sales and 8.8 per cent of unit sales nationally were at a price of at least $1 million.
CoreLogic analyst Cameron Kusher said while regional housing markets generally have lower housing costs than capital cities, the proportion of sales occurring for at least $1 million was also increasing.
“With dwelling values continuing to climb, we anticipate that in another 12 months we’ll see an even higher proportion of sales sitting at or about $1 million,” Mr Kusher said.
More than 250 sales worth more than $1 million were reported to CoreLogic this year, though many more seven figure sales are going undisclosed. 32 33 20 19 14 14 12 6 6 5
Newtown had the most, with 46, with Barwon Heads on 42, while Geelong West emerged with seven above $1 million.
Newtown agent Dale Whitford said Geelong had become a national real estate market, with buyers from Melbourne and Sydney becoming a regular 11 5 6 8 4 1 — 2 1 1 3 3 4 3 — 1 1 2 1 1 sight at auctions. While growth in values played a major part in the volume of $1 million-plus sales, Mr Whitford said it showed homeowners also had the confidence to build, or renovate and find a buyer in that price bracket.
“I think people from Mel- bourne, they’re coming down here and a million dollars is not a lot of money in Melbourne,” he said. “And we’ve had a lot of interest from people from Sydney — and Avalon has been a linchpin in that. People are commuting three days a week and working the balance from home. Mr Whitford said Geelong buyers were also in the market.
“Look at Miramar, the sales probably haven’t been registered yet, but there are many sales there well in excess of $1 million and some in excess of $2 million and predominantly buyers are Geelong people.”
McGrath, Geelong agent Jim Cross said sellers had enjoyed fairly aggressive capital growth over the past five years on top of homeowners investing in their dwellings.
“We are seeing a large amount of capital being pumped into properties for new homes, renovations and extensions,” he said.
“A lot of people have got the confidence to invest in improving their properties.
“Not only is capital growth a factor, but you’ve got capital being pumped into properties to be worth more money that’s driving property prices up over that million-dollar mark.”