Homes are selling like hot cakes in Victoria’s affordable property havens.
New realestate.com.au figures show Pakenham was the city’s most active housing market last year, with 1114 dwellings transacting.
The vast majority of those (91.5 per cent) were houses, as entry-level buyers took advantage of the southeastern fringe suburb’s achievable $522,000 median price.
Almost 1000 residences also changed hands in both Point Cook ($655,000 house median) and Craigieburn ($550,000), according to realestate.com.au.
Houses were again the dominant sellers at 95.8 per cent and 93.4 per cent respectively.
Nine of the state’s 10 top selling suburbs of 2018 had median house prices below $700,000.
Werribee, Frankston, Berwick and Sunbury all notched more than 700 sales for the year to make the list, along with regional spots Mildura and Traralgon.
Reservoir was the outlier with a $795,000 median house price, and the highest proportion of unit sales at 44 per cent.
The northern suburb’s unit median is comparable to most of the others’ house figures at $542,500.
Realestate.com.au chief economist Nerida Conisbee said new dwelling supply had pumped up sales volumes in “house and land suburbs” like Pakenham, Point Cook and Craigieburn.
But they were also benefiting from a boost in first-home buyers seeking out homes below $750,000 — the cut off for stamp duty concessions.
Barry Plant Pakenham director Matt Ketteringham said this state government incentive, coupled with a renewed confidence spurred by a reduction in investor activity, had spurred a first-home buyer boom in his suburb.
Other drawcards were the employment opportunities offered by the Southeast Blvd industrial park and continued housing affordability, despite CoreLogic figures showing a 15 per cent annual median house price rise.
Further CoreLogic data shows buyers splashed $607.6 million on houses in Pakenham in 2018, making it one of Melbourne’s biggest property markets by value along with Brighton, Toorak and Point Cook.
Pakenham’s haul was up from $529.4 million in 2017.
Professionals Mildura director Tony Roccisano said Victoria’s top selling regional market was “on fire”.
“(Mildura’s) in the middle of a food boom. And it’s one of the only places in Victoria where manufacturing is increasing, rather than decreasing,” he said.
He said a growing number of migrants from smaller towns were moving to the region, in which billions of dollars had been invested in the past 18 months.
Another drawcard was Mildura’s housing affordability, Mr Roccisano said: “But prices are starting to move on now. We’re selling a lot of houses over $1 million, though they usually have river frontage.”
— with Nathan Mawby
MELBOURNE’S TOP SELLING SUBURBS 2018
1. Pakenham: 1114 house and unit sales, 91.5% of those houses, $522,000 median house price
2. Point Cook: 969, 95.8%, $655,000
3. Craigieburn: 969, 93.4%, $550,000
4. Werribee: 871, 82.1%, $510,000
5. Frankston: 869, 66.2%, $610,000
6. Reservoir: 746, 56.2%, $795,000
7. Berwick: 726, 89%, $699,500
8. Mildura: 723, 85.1%, $279,500
9. Sunbury: 704, 86.9%, $546,500
10. Traralgon: 704, 87.6%, $290,000
— Source: realestate.com.au, for the year to November 30
This article was originally published as Melbourne’s most action-packed property markets revealed by www.realestate.com.au and written by Samantha Landy.