Geelong a property hot spot as more pour into region

GEELONG has outperformed every capital city as dwelling values continue to increase while national home values suffer their biggest annual decline in six years

CoreLogic’s latest Hedonic Home Value Index for the July quarter shows that nationally values were 1.6 per cent lower than a year ago, marking the biggest fall since 2012.

In Geelong there was a 2.2 per cent dwelling value increase in the July quarter.

This contrasts with Melbourne which was identified in the report as the nation’s weakest performing capital with home values plunging 1.8 per cent.

Geelong also has a positive monthly and yearly change for dwelling values, which takes into account both houses and units, of 0.1 per cent monthly and 10.5 per cent annually.

Buxton agent Ben Riddle said Geelong was a hot spot within Australian real estate.

“There is a massive misconception at the moment that what Melbourne and Sydney are doing, people are happy to apply that to Geelong, but it couldn’t be further from the truth,” Mr Riddle said.

“Geelong is a unique market. It is not following Melbourne and Sydney trends … our demand is increasing, there is a shortage of supply and more and more people are moving to Geelong and looking at it as an investment option.”

Mr Riddle said he expected this market to continue at this pace for a couple of years.

“We are still well under par when it comes to pricing compared to Melbourne,” he said.

The median dwelling value in Geelong is $557,082 compared with $709,568 in Melbourne, according to CoreLogic.