The Victorian sea-change market buoyed by first home buyers and investors
The falling cash rate and renewed interest from interstate investors has helped to lift the seaside region from its post COVID-era blues.
The Mornington Peninsula property market is showing signs of recovery after a lean few years, thanks to an influx of interest in its more affordable neighbourhoods.
The reversal of COVID-era sea-change trends caused prices on the peninsula to drop in 2024, with increased taxes on investments and holiday homes blamed for the lifestyle-heavy location’s decline.
Data from research company Cotality showed the median house value on the Mornington Peninsula grew 6.3 per cent in the 12 months to November to $1,009,000; that rate of growth increased over the year once the market turned in July.
Unit values were up 4.6 per cent over the same period, to a median of $673,000. Cotality head of Australian research Eliza Owen said the market was yet to fully recover.
“Values are still well below their record highs of March 2022. Overall, values are up 26 per cent for five years, that’s pretty good for an overall growth rate … but the five-year uplift in the [region] was 76th out of 87 in Australia,” she said.
“For the past 12 months values are only up 6 per cent, and nationally, home values were up about 7.5 per cent in the past 12 months. It underperformed the national market, but it outperformed the Melbourne market.”
Home values were rising fastest in more affordable areas, the data shows. Frankston North recorded the most growth over the past five years, up 51.5 per cent to $723,000. The next highest rates of growth were in nearby Langwarrin (up 37.5 per cent to $940,000) and Sandhurst (36.4 per cent to $1,106,000).
Resident Geraldine Hanton recently sold her Mount Eliza house after it spent just 13 days on the market. She and husband Peter decided to list their home to take advantage of a rise in activity they’d noticed.
“We wanted to downsize, we still need to be near facilities and everything, but we’d just like a smaller home that hasn’t got as much maintenance, and we were just waiting for the signs that the market had looked like it was starting to be on the positive side,” she said. “They always say spring is the best time to put your house on the market.”
Hanton said she was happy to have found a buyer within two weeks, and credited part of their success to picking the right time to list.
