Property bargains on offer

IF YOU want a bargain price for a house in Byron Bay, then buy now.

Byron Bay house prices have been discounted on average by 15.6 per cent in order for sales to be finalised. . Picture: DAVID NIELSEN

IF YOU want a bargain price for a house in Byron Bay, then buy now.

The most recent survey from RP Data shows that Byron Bay homeowners have had to drop their asking price on average by 15.6 per cent to sell their properties.

While the reduced house prices were unlikely to last, there was still an opportunity for buyers to negotiate a good price, RP Data media and communications manager Mitch Koper said

But don’t expect the 15 per cent discounts to be still occurring in the current market, she added.

Graham Dunn, from Byron Bay Property Sales, agrees that sellers have had to reduce their asking price.

“When people are desperate to meet the market they have had to drop the price from the height of 2007,” he said.

The top end markets are on the road to recovery and bargain prices are closing fast, the survey showed.

Millionaire Greg Poche reportedly spent $7.5 million on a Wategos Beach house recently.

With a net worth reaching $977 million in the BRW Rich List, Mr Poche hardly needs to take advantage of the heavy discounting of Byron Bay properties.

On yesterday’s listings a Byron Bay three-bedroom townhouse was on the market for $539,000; while a four-bedroom home with ocean views at Broken Head was worth $2.5 million.

In 2006, TheNorthern Star reported on a $16 million sale of a luxury Wategos beach house to Sydney developer Danny Goldberg.

Lack of properties to sell seems to be more of an issue than the price, according to Mr Dunn.

“We’re running out of stock, we have a green council and there aren’t any more properties,” he said.

Generally, house prices across Australia have fallen, according to the RP Data survey.

Even though the latest figures show the expensive end of the market is beginning to recover, the national average price of a house in some Australian suburbs has dropped from between 47pc (Abby, WA) to 27pc (Cooktown, Qld).

The highest growth area in Australia was Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory with a growth of 43.4pc while the Brisbane suburb of Tarragindi experienced the greatest jump in unit prices.

The most expensive suburbs are found in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

However, Peppermint Grove in Perth topped all the figures with a whopping average house price of $5.1 million.

While the Byron Bay property market seems to be on the road to recovery, it will take time to see how much buyers are prepared to pay for a beach house at north-facing Wategos Beach.

Originally published as Property bargains on offer