MILDURA’S booming property market is forecast to continue double-digit growth in 2021 after a year of outperforming just about every other regional centre in Australia.
Leading property data company CoreLogic this week reported that housing values in north-west Victoria had increased by 11.6 per cent in 2020.
Sunraysia ranked fifth of 88 comparable regions across Australia, with the Grampians recording the year’s strongest growth of 16.6 per cent last year.
“The north-west region of Victoria has been one of the strongest regional housing markets in the country,” CoreLogic research director Tim Lawless told Sunraysia Daily.
“Dwelling values reached a new record high in December, however the median value remains affordable relative to Melbourne at $254,400 (the Melbourne median is $682,200).”
While Mildura had one of the nation’s hottest property markets last year, Melbourne’s dwelling values fell by 1.3 per cent over the year.
Builders in Mildura last month told the Daily that there had a “spike” in the number of Melburnians buying property across Sunraysia.
“Regional housing markets had generally underperformed relative to the capital city regions over the past decade, but 2020 saw regional housing values surge as demand outweighed supply,” Mr Lawless said.
Independent property guru Simon Pressley, who runs the Propertyology firm, predicted the Mildura market would continue to shine this year.
“Mildura ended the 2020 calendar year with its property market already running at double-digit growth pace,” Mr Pressley said.
“Propertyology is predicting Mildura’s property market to sustain price growth of more than 10 per cent in 2021.
“There is no reason that the local economy won’t continue to be solid and demand will convincingly exceed supply.”
He said the strength of the Mildura market had been underpinned by “housing affordability, low supply and a solid local economy”.
“Over the last five years, Mildura’s 30 per cent increase in median house price is superior to every capital city other than Hobart (which had 50 per cent price growth),” Mr Pressley said.
He said Mildura’s rental market continued to be “exceptionally strong”, with rents rising by $40 a week over the past two years.
“There were only 40 dwellings advertised for rent as at the end of November. The 0.6 per cent vacancy rate is one of the tightest in Australia.
“Since 2018, Mildura has consistently had less than 400 dwellings for sale at any given time. The low housing supply and strong local confidence places upward pressure on asset values.
“Mildura’s economy has been stronger than several capital cities’ for a few years. And it also proved to be incredibly resilient through the COVID-19 crazy stuff.”
