A big move to units

GROWTH: Highton, city rival Melbourne prices

UNITS and apartments have become hot property in the Geelong region as downsizers and investors jockey for position in key suburbs.

Real Estate Institute of Victoria data shows a 4.6 per cent rise to $412,000 in the median price for units, apartments and townhouses in the City of Greater Geelong.

REIV quarterly figures showed price growth stalled for houses in Geelong over the three months to June.

House prices were 6.6 per cent higher than last year at $565,000, according to REIV.

Big jumps in unit prices were revealed in Highton and central Geelong, with 33.3 per cent growth over 12 months.

Both suburbs had a median unit price of more than half a million dollars — which REIV chief executive Gil King said were levels expected in inner Melbourne suburbs.

“Highton’s median unit price is sitting at $508,000 (up from $381,000) while Geelong’s is a whopping $690,000 ( up from $517,500),” Mr King said.

Apartment construction is adding to the mix of high and low-rise properties on the waterfront and across the city centre.

The city’s large professional services firms and the hospital precinct also have a big influence on demand in units and apartments close to the city.

Hayeswinckle director Michelle Winckle said a demographic shift was influencing demand in Highton.

“I think the older clientele are downsizing. It’s more people downsizing from larger homes in Highton up on the hills,” Ms Winckle said. “So they’re going down to the unit market that’s close to the shops.

“Anything that’s close to the shops they’re preferring that than maybe going further out to a smaller home. They’d prefer to have a unit.”

She said investors were also seeing the positive growth.

“Anything within proximity to the shops is highly popular, so that’s why the unit market has been going OK,” she said.

Ms Winckle said changes to the Residential Tenancies Act had also led investors who had owned units for long periods to sell and cash in on the growth.

Unit sales traditionally make up less than 15 per cent of residential property transactions in Geelong, meaning that price changes tended to be more volatile.

But recent planning documents directing the city’s growth point to encouraging more medium and high density around shopping centres, train stations and Waurn Ponds, while new unit developments are also emerging in the Armstrong Creek growth area.