REAL Estate Institute of Victoria figures for the March quarter reveal Melbourne’s house-price median has dropped 3.1 per cent since the previous quarter, from $423,000 to $410,000. It is down 4.7 per cent on the past 12 months.
The decline can be directly attributed to continuing economic uncertainty and a lowering of investor and consumer confidence.
The figures highlight the importance of the financial assistance provided to first-home buyers, which has been a critical factor driving demand in the past few months.
That 15 of the 20 top growth suburbs for the quarter have a median price of less than $500,000 is a sign of first-home owner activity because the maximum grants are available only for homes below that value.
Four suburbs recorded double-digit growth in the March quarter (as in the December quarter).
In March, Doncaster East topped the list at $637,550, up from $531,000, an increase of 20.1 per cent (and 6.8 per cent in 12 months); Mount Martha rose from $430,000 to $500,000 (up 16.3 per cent); Keysborough climbed to $380,000 from its December figure of $336,000 (up 12.9 per cent); and Brighton East grew 10.8 per cent to $972,000 from $877,500.
Key centres in regional Victoria have recorded a wider diversity of results, with the median house price in Greater Ballarat increasing 8.2 per cent from $227,500 to $246,250; in Greater Bendigo it grew 0.8 per cent from $240,000 to $242,000; and in the City of Greater Geelong it fell 3.8 per cent, from $329,000 to $316,500.
