Father of five sells Coburg home as Melbourne property price predictions labelled ‘well off’
Nothing quite says market confidence like a real estate agent trying to sell their own home. See if the father of five’s decision paid off.
Nothing quite says market confidence like a real estate agent trying to sell their own home.
Amid forecasts of Melbourne house prices being tipped to fall from the nation’s biggest banks being labelled ‘wrong’ and ‘well off’, Ray White Coburg director Nazih Abbouchi decided to take the plunge.
The father of five made the call to put his four-bedroom home at 57 Main Rd, with price hopes of $1.6m-$1.7m.
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And his decision to list ended up paying off, as the property sold for $1.75m last week, much to the delight of Mr Mr Abbouchi, wife Nahida and their children Jamila, 13, Karim, 12, Zayd, 10, Safiyah, 6, and Malik, 4.
“Stock levels are quite low, especially family homes that are turnkey,” Mr Abbouchi said.
“We’re building our dream home so if we can try and use that money towards our build, then even better.”
The Abbouchi family added a mini basketball court during their time at the California bungalow, which has been “freshened up a bit” and benefits from a double garage.
The family has lived at the property for the past 10 years.
It comes after even the most conservative Melbourne property predictions, which expected a decline of about 15 per cent, would still need the fall to double to be close.
NAB forecast 23 per cent to be wiped from Melbourne’s median property price in October, with most touting losses of between 15-20 per cent peak to trough.
But PropTrack’s latest Home Price Index shows about 6 per cent has been shed from an average house’s value in the city, with the worst of the downturn now widely considered over.
Hotspotting founder Terry Ryder has long believed many were too focused on interest rates and pointed towards migration and infrastructure projects as pillars of price resilience.
“The biggest factors are shortage, shortage, shortage,” he said.
“A shortage of properties being listed for sale, a shortage of rentals, a shortage of new building. Everything is about shortage.
“When supply of properties for purchase, for rent, construction are falling well short of levels to have a balanced market, there is going to be upward pressure on prices counterbalancing other factors like interest rates.”
Mr Ryder said big bank predictions had been “spectacularly wrong every time” over the past three years, pointing to NAB dramatically changing its forecast from just a few months ago and ANZ economists publishing their own “surprise” at the recent uptick.
PropTrack in February forecast a fall between 7-10 per cent in Melbourne by year’s end after a 5.2 per cent tumble last year.
It does not have an updated forecast for Melbourne, but its April Home Price Index has the median home price down 5.94 per cent from its March 2022 peak, to $795,000.
PropTrack economist Angus Moore said demand was strong broadly, shown on realestate.com.au and in how tight rental markets were.
“There is fundamentally strong demand for places to live,” he said.
“That’s going to support prices.
“The headwind of interest rates is still there — what happens to prices from here will depend on how much further the RBA has to go with interest rates.”
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— additional reporting with Scott Carbines
Originally published as Father of five sells Coburg home as Melbourne property price predictions labelled ‘well off’