Geelong home values climb almost $30,000 in market recovery
Geelong home values have surged almost $30,000 in a year as the recovering property market hits new peak across regional Victoria.
Geelong home values are nearly $30,000 higher than the same time last year as the property market continues to recover.
The latest PropTrack Home Price Index revealed a .36 per cent jump in the region’s median dwelling value, which climbed $28,360 over 12 months.
Unit values were the big mover in November, with a 1.75 per cent jump reflecting in a more than $10,000 rise for the month to a $583,393 median value.
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Houses, which make up more than 80 per cent of Geelong’s dwellings, reached $797,530 in November, a rise of more than $25,000.
The recovery in Geelong came as home prices across all of regional Victoria hit a new peak, rising 5.6 per cent year on year.
North-west Victoria, Bendigo and Ballarat – which have median values at least $120,000 cheaper than Geelong – were the state’s strongest regions, with annual rises between 8.3 per cent to 9.7 per cent.
PropTrack senior economist Eleanor Creagh said momentum is broadening in the market, including an uplift in investor activity.
“It’s not been quite as prevalent in Victoria, I believe, as in other states, due to some of the changes that investors have faced in that market,” Ms Creagh said.
“We’ve seen land tax increases on investors and rental market conditions haven’t been as tight in Victoria as they have been in other states.
“We’re probably at a point where maybe those land tax increases are offset by the fact that values are comparatively affordable, and the region’s forecast to have continued strong population growth and demand to live and work there.”
McGrath Geelong director Jim Cross said sales volumes were lifting across the board deep into the spring selling season, including in more expensive brackets despite patchy sentiment.
“Twelve months ago, we weren’t seeing as many high-end properties turning over,” Mr Cross said.
“If you’re selling more properties in that $800,000 to $1.2m range in volume, and then all of a sudden you start selling a few more in the mid-$1m, high-$1m and perhaps in the $2m and $3m brackets, it doesn’t take many of those to increase the average.”
But the biggest change remains in the more affordable category.
“Our Armstrong Creek office principal Sam Parsons is seeing that volume market really take off,” Mr Cross said.
“Where 12 months to two years ago there was hardly any vacant land sales happening, therefore the house and land packages had gone right off, what’s happened since we’ve had those three interest rate cuts and the introduction of the first home guarantee scheme, is those affordable entry-level properties are now selling in one to three weeks.”
Ms Creagh said conditions would continue to favour sellers in 2026.
“I think this year’s series of interest rate cuts, population inflows, investor activity and the expanded home guarantee scheme will continue to bolster demand along with upgrade activity,” Mr Creagh said.
“Meanwhile, stock on market has been pretty tight this year, despite having seen an uplift over the past month with the spring selling surge.”
Ms Creagh said the delivery of new housing remains constrained, so conditions should continue to favour sellers, though there were headwinds.
“Broadly, it looks like further price gains into summer, although the extended pause on interest rates and APRA’s cap on high debt-to-income lending is probably going to temper momentum into the first half of 2026 so we could see the pace of growth easing off slightly,” Ms Creagh said.
Originally published as Geelong home values climb almost $30,000 in market recovery