Geelong housing market hits the bottom, now a best buy, reports show

New reports show Geelong’s housing market had hit the bottom and is now among Australia’s 10 best places to buy property today for future growth.

Agent Matthew Roberts said buyer sentiment is turning as interest rates remained paused.

Geelong has been named as one of the nation’s best buys in a report identifying the nation’s top future property hot spots.

The Hotspotting National Top 10 Best Buys 2023 report comes amid mounting evidence of a recovery in Geelong’s property market after the post-Covid slump.

The report shows Geelong remains a hot spot for homebuyers on the back of strong population growth, economic diversification and the success of the Armstrong Creek urban growth corridor as a job creator.

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Billions in investments, including defence manufacturing contracts, local infrastructure and a $294m Geelong Convention Centre were other reasons to buy in the region, the report showed.

Hotspotting general manager Tim Graham said recovery was the underlying theme in Geelong, where previously declining suburbs were now showing stronger sales activity, a pointer to future price growth.

The firm’s two most recent Price Predictor Index reports showed Geelong continues to attract significant buyer demand.

The economic boost from a $294m investment in the Geelong Convention and Exhibition Centre is a reason to buy property in the region, according to Hotspotting.

“Hotspotting attributed this to the strong economy and its affordable prices, relative to Melbourne,” Mr Graham said

Greater Geelong is a steady, highly consistent market that continues to see solid demand in 2023, he said.

“Many suburbs continued to have busy markets, with Lara, Highton, Ocean Grove, Corio, Armstrong Creek, and Grovedale all recording more than 200 annual house sales,” Mr Graham said.

Busy market: 4 Bluebird Court, Lara is on the market.

“Newcomb, Corio, Norlane, and Whittington offer the area’s lowest prices, with Norlane recording a median house price of $460,000 and Corio $510,000.

“Many Geelong suburbs have capital growth rates averaging around 10 per cent per year for the past decade – while Barwon Heads, Indented Head and Queenscliff averaged 13 to 14 per cent per year.”

National valuation firm Herron Todd White has reclassified Geelong as reaching the bottom of the market on it’s national property clock in August.

Herron Todd White’s National Property Clock shows Geelong had reached at the bottom of the market in August.

Herron Todd White Geelong property valuer Leigh Burns said he agreed with the assessment.

“We’re either at the bottom or the near the bottom and waiting for recovery,” Mr Burns said.

“In the last 24 to 36 months we’ve seen the prices rise fairly dramatically in some areas, and it’s either stabilised or started to drop off depending on locality,” he said.

Values in satellite suburbs such as Lara and Leopold were flat, while the northern suburbs also had remained steady, he said.

Conversely, Armstrong Creek had suffered as there was a lot of “very similar” properties and not as many buyers.

Lots of houses: 29 Langdon St, Armstrong Creek is on the market.

Mr Burns said buyer sentiment was impacting house prices, though it was hoped a continued pause in official interest rates would boost confidence.

“We’re hoping for the next few months as we go into spring that buyers might start coming out as the interest rates seem to have stopped increasing,” he said.

“Vendors have got to be more realistic with the price expectations. They’ve got to look around and see what’s selling?”

What was clear was that confidence remained low in the building industry, both due to increased costs and the collapse of several high-profile builder.

Auctioneer Matthew Roberts calls for bids at 35 Toyne Ave, Hamlyn Heights.

Hayeswinckle, East Geelong agent Mathew Roberts said buyer sentiment had turned a corner after the Reserve Bank paused official interest rates for consecutive months.

Mr Roberts said sellers who were coming to the market at realistic prices and were finding buyers in short time.

“People realise that if your price looks right, it’s in a good location, it’s still going to sell and there’s still plenty of buyer out there,” Mr Roberts said.

“A lot of property went on to the market at the right level and it sold and now we’re into August, September, October looking towards spring and we’ve tried to cash a few people out before the spring rush.

“But we think the stock is coming and our numbers have certainly increased but that might be because we’ve had a slow year up until this point.”

David Cortous said demand for new or renovated houses would push up capital growth in built-up areas of Geelong.

Mr Roberts said the bottom of the market was one of the best times to upgrade or downsize because the changeover costs can be discounted.

McGrath, Geelong director David Cortous said stronger demand for recently built and renovated homes would push a strong case for capital growth next year.

“Building costs have gone through the roof and aren’t going to come back. And you’ve got a lag on building so there’s got to be supply issues.

“As a result of that I think you’ll get to see more value on existing homes in built-up areas. “And when I say more value, that’s actually on the capital on the house whereas in the past has always been the land that it’s sitting on

“you’re going to see an uplift on new homes and renovated home, especially in built up areas.

Originally published as Geelong housing market hits the bottom, now a best buy, reports show