The demand for established housing and new residential blocks continues to boom locally, especially at Drouin and Warragul but other towns in Baw Baw Shire are also attracting plenty of buyer interest.
A recent auction of six 2000 square metre blocks in the Waterford Rise estate at Warragul sold quickly for a total of $3.2 million with prices ranging from $505,000 to a high of $542,500.
Real estate agents and developers say land and existing houses are often being snapped up by buyers within days of coming on the market.
And newer blocks being released in developing estates are bringing prices in the high $200,000s for 500 square metres.
The rental market is also under significant pressure with demand far outstripping the number of houses available.
Shane Candappa of Candappa First National at Drouin said “cheap money” – interest rates have halved in the past 18 months – was a contributing factor but he was also surprised at the number of cash buyers for houses in the area.
He said while there were people moving from the outer metropolitan area the market was mostly being driven by “locals”; those who had been renting and people taking advantage of rising prices and low borrowing costs to upgrade or to capitalise by downsizing from larger blocks.
Mr Candappa said he believed some 130 changes to tenancy legislation had severely impacted the rental market, many landlords have decided to “cash out” causing a supply and demand imbalance that has seen rental costs jump significantly.
In Warragul Vin Quirk of Quirk Real Estate told a similar story.
He said many houses were selling within a couple of weeks of coming on the market.
Young local people and those from the eastern fringes of greater Melbourne were prominent in the local market but Mr Quirk also believes many are just discovering the attraction of living in the district.
Latest data from the Real Estate Institute of Victoria showed historic high prices for regional properties.
The report showed regional Victoria’s 10.5 per cent quarterly growth and almost 20 per cent annual growth in house prices – the highest on record – reaffirmed the trend in tree or sea change investment and relocation.
