Regional Victoria a property hotspot
Regional Victoria is enjoying a significant property upswing, new research has found.
According to PRD Jens Gaunt Regional Victoria 2010 Property Research Report, median house prices in regional Victoria have risen above the $300,000 mark for the first time – recording property growth of 14.8 per cent over the last six months.
PRD Jens Gaunt research analyst and report author Dan O’Halloran has flagged the region as one of Australia’s major property hotspots.
“Regional Victoria’s robust performance throughout the uncertainty of the GFC and in its wake, has left the majority of the nation’s markets in awe,” he said.
The population of the seven local government areas examined in the report – has reached 732,059 residents – a growth of 4.2 per cent, outstripping the national growth rate of 2.3 per cent.
“The growing population has resulted in an expanding economy in many precincts throughout the state,” said Mr O’Halloran.
PRD Jens Gaunt chief executive officer Neil Jens said it was an amazing time for real estate in central regional Victoria.
“The Melbourne market has grown extraordinarily in recent years and our proximity to the City and price differential are meaning an enormous demand in some centres from Melbourne buyers,” he said.
Mr Jens said there was a lot of interest from investors.
“Many centres have experienced massive growth in land prices – in some instances over 30 per cent during a time when many centres around Australia and many of our sister offices in the PRD group around the country are experiencing difficulty,” he said.
“When other markets around the country during the early 2000’s were growing in value – our markets remained stable – in fact, we had minimal growth over the best part of 10 years.
“It would appear that we are in for a period of “catch up”.”