Steady She Goes
Steady She Goes
The market has gone off with a bang in the past fortnight as the office is ringing with phones off the hook, there is an increased surge of buyer activity and our auction clearance rate stands at an impressive 86 per cent. There appears to be a confidence emerging from buyers and we are expecting that auction success rates will hold steady, setting a positive tone for the upcoming months.
Real Estate Institute of Victoria’s Policy and Public Affairs Manager, Robert Larocca believes that the market has stepped up a couple of notches in the past few months in comparison to last year. “The Melbourne market is no doubt performing better than last year and is in a period of recovery, recovering some of the ground lost in 2011 and 2012. Moderate improvements, increased transactions, more active buyers and sellers have contributed towards an improving phase,” he said.
Housing affordability has improved by 20 per cent since the prices peaked in late 2010 and this is one of the reasons why more buyers are currently active in the residential market. The reason for the improved affordability is three fold. Interest rates are very low; incomes have risen at the same time as overall prices have fallen. “The recovery is a moderate one and this is good news for buyers as they are unlikely to see budgets surpassed by price growth over the year (this was an underlying factor in 2010 where buyers were priced out of many suburbs,” Mr Larocca explained.
“This year clearance rates in Melbourne’s Metropolitan West have improved due to the high level of competition as many people are discovering the wide range of gems in this sought after region.”
Out there in buyer-land, Compton Green are witnessing a steady flow of traffic at open for inspections, there is noticeably more action going on at auctions and stronger competition signals a healthy market. The pulse of the property market is definitely beating faster!
