HOBART BART HOMES

26 AOTEA RD, SANDY BAY, $ 1.68M

THE new year has started with a bang for Hobart’s housing market with the median price for homes sold in the first 10 days of January surging to $ 590,000 — making it the fourth most expensive market in the land behind only Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra. That is up $ 20,000 on December.

A JUMP in Hobart’s median house price could be just the start for 2021, says the state’s peak body for real estate agents.

The latest CoreLogic Property Market indicator shows the median house price in Hobart at January 10 was $ 590,000 – fourth behind Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.

The figure was up from a Hobart median of about $ 570,000 in December.

“We are also seeing Hobart has the tightest number of days on the market for capital cities. I think the statistics in this report indicate the momentum gaining across the market of Hobart which is coming off the back of ( steady) increases in recent years,” said CoreLogic head of research for Australia Eliza Owen.

Ms Owen said the price increases were driven by the continuing housing supply shortage in Tasmania.

There were 24 per cent fewer new properties listed in Hobart than at this time last year.

Values across Hobart were up 6 per cent year on year.

The two top house sales in Tasmania over the past week were 26 Aotea Rd, Sandy Bay, which sold for $ 1.68m, and 47 Channel Highway, Taroona, which sold for

$ 1.3m.

Both homes were sold by Petrusma Property.

Real Estate Institute of Tasmania president Mandy Welling said the bump was likely driven by recent sales over the million- dollar mark rather than an overall jump in values.

However, Ms Welling said early indications were that prices would continue to rise this year.

“I’m a very strong believer we do have at least another 10 per cent growth in the marketplace, I believe we are at the tip of the iceberg for this year,” she said.

“Anything that is priced within about 5 per cent of what the market should be, those properties are going quite quickly.”

Ms Welling sounded a warning for first- home buyers looking to enter the market in Tasmania as outside interest rises.

Although the REIT’s most recent sales report showed 90 per cent of buyers were local, that could be about to change.

“My biggest fear going forward this year is if we do have an influx of buyers from interstate … that could push the market up another 15- 20 per cent,” she said.