Selling in regional Victoria ‘like winning the lotto’ as country favourites boom with Melburnians
Droves of Melburnians are lighting up regional real estate phone lines and supply can’t keep up as our favourite towns bulge.
Selling homes in regional Victorian property hot spots is “like winning the lotto” as Melbourne’s continual Covid setbacks drive buyers to hit the phones.
Belle Property Daylesford principal director Will Walton said his agency’s phone lines and emails had already been inundated the morning increased restrictions amid new cases were announced.
“The buyer inquiry has probably doubled in the past few weeks, it’s been extraordinary; particularly this morning, people asking ‘what have you got available?’, there are hardly any listings in our whole region at the moment,” Mr Walton said.
“Every time we have some Corona outbreak it basically sends a wave of buyers to our region because of the uncertainty.
“It’s amazing. It makes our switchboard and emails completely ramp right up.”
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Mr Walton said demand was far outweighing supply in popular regional areas, with properties for sale in Daylesford and Trentham “about 90 per cent down” on this time last year.
“Hence prices in regional Victoria seem to be completely steam-training along; for those who are ready for sale it’s going to be like winning the lotto selling their home at the moment.”
Mr Walton recently sold former Aesop head of retail design and development Rowan Lodge’s bush retreat, designed by legendary architect Peter McIntyre, to a family from Melbourne for an undisclosed price close to $1.35m.
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The “three module” property on 7.52ha at 311 Camerons Lane, Beremboke, had been advertised for $1.35m-$1.45m and last sold for $920,250 in 2016.
Being an hour from Melbourne and its short-stay potential were major drawcards.
Mr Walton said many buyers were looking regionally for properties they could stay and work from home at in the short term, with long term short-stay accommodation investment potential.
“Without doubt there’s a short-term plan and a long-term plan and that’s the beauty of certain regional Victorian locations, you’ve got the best of both worlds, they’ve got the work from home option and when they feel they may not need that they can decide to potentially use it as an investment,” he said.
“Holiday investments in the Daylesford area can get up to 20 per cent return, which is quite an extraordinary percentage. It puts people in a very good cash positive position.”
Mr Walton said areas including Daylesford and Trentham were only increasing in popularity and there was now an extra midweek boost due to lack of overseas travel.
Regional footpaths were buzzing with tourists — and new residents, he said.
Daylesford’s median house price rose 14.6 per cent to $740,500 in the past 12 months, according to realestate.com.au, while Trentham’s grew 13.9 per cent to $726,000.
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scott.carbines@news.com.au
Originally published as Selling in regional Victoria ‘like winning the lotto’ as country favourites boom with Melburnians
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