VISITS to Sunraysia open house inspections have increased significantly following the Christmas break, says Damian Portaro.
Ray White Mildura’s managing director says the local property market has had an “unbelievably brilliant” start to the year.
“We had our first weekend launch and numbers at inspections were up three-fold, which is great,” he said.
“Most notably was a listing in Belleview Drive, which had 39 groups come through, and one in Mildura that had 22 groups.”
Mr Portaro said Ray White had about 179 groups come through 25 open homes over the weekend.
“(Numbers) are substantially up from where we were two or one months ago,” he said.
“It is a buoyant start to the year and we hope it continues.”
Mr Portaro said it was too soon to tell if the influx of local interest was due to a lack of supply or the sign of a more stable market.
“It could be a temporary resupply in the market that we were missing or it could be a better sign,” he said.
“The next four to five weeks will tell us if we are entering a more stable market or if it is still on the way down a little bit.”
Mr Portaro advised sellers to get into the market sooner, rather than later.
“We know what market we are dealing with now,” he said.
“So my advice is as quick as we can and those that did that have benefitted this week in a big way.
“Having a threefold number of people coming to your open house doesn’t happen very much.”
Mr Portaro said there was currently interest in a range of different property types, but those in Irymple stood out as attracting interest.
“Irymple is always very popular as there is not a lot out there at the moment,” he said.
“But anything that the market perceives as being good value is attracting a lot of interest.”
Mr Portaro said he expected open house numbers to continue to be good this coming week.
“We had opens (Monday night) and they were strong and we have had some good offers on older listings which is encouraging,” he said.
“I think the next five or six weeks will be crucial to determine how the next six months will play out.”
