Melbourne lots of land selling faster than ever in suburban growth zones
BUYERS are facing ever shorter timelines to buy their dream block as competition for Melbourne’s new estates soars off the back of the city’s surging population.
Nathan Mawby
Herald Sun Real EstateNOVEMBER 23, 201711:31AM
New house and land packages are hot property at the moment.
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THE great Australian dream of a house on a block of land has never been more in demand, or more competitive.
With Victoria’s population booming, and many of the state’s new migrants heading to housing estates on Melbourne’s fringe, land buyers have just days to lock in a block.
Property research and advisory group Oliver Hume has reported the average vacant lot now spends three weeks on the market. Five years ago it was 6.5 months on average, according to national head of research George Bougias.
“They are down to 21 days … and some are sold much quicker,” Mr Bougias said.
Stockland regional manager residential manager David Allington said the development giant had sold more than 2000 lots in Melbourne this year, the majority of them the day they were released or within a few days.
Stockland’s latest land release attracted more than 7000 registered buyers, despite just 84 lots being made available at their Mt Atkinson estate last weekend — all were sold within 48 hours.
Mt Atkinson, a new housing area to be developed in Truganina just south west of Caroline Springs.
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To cope with the demand, they opted to bring in an online ticketing system, similar to those used to buy tickets for major events and concerts, whereby the first people to click through online after a designated time were given a chance to buy a block.
“We have applied that process in some of our Sydney projects where demand has been unprecedented,” Mr Allington said. “But in Melbourne ... we have not seen this before.”
Urban Development Institute of Australia Victorian chief executive Danni Addison said supply was at a record low.
“According to the UDIA Residential Development Index, Victoria is facing a significant gap with respect to the supply and demand of housing,” Ms Addison said.
“If this trend continues, Victorians will be subjected to historically disproportionate levels of housing supply and demand, which will exacerbate the state’s housing affordability crisis.”
The price of Melbourne’s median lot rose $20,000 in the space of three months to $292,650 at the end of September, according to Oliver Hume’s latest data.
And that’s for a block that is smaller than ever before, with the median size falling from 580sq m in 2007 to 414sq m in the latest figures.
“Any market that has adjusted by a third in 10 years, that’s quite a big adjustment,” Mr Bougias said.
Behind the rising figures is the city’s booming population.
Mr Bougias estimated that of the 126,000 additional people who came to Victoria in the 2015-2016 financial year, about 58,000 of them moved to municipalities that contained the city’s growth zones.
“You are getting 60,000 extra people to these areas and it wasn’t that long ago and the whole of Melbourne was growing by just 60,000,” he said.
Taylor Ciavarella, 24, and partner Stefan Najmeddine, 25, (pictured below) recently bought a block of land at Sienna Rise in Plumpton by Villa World. They faced high competition throughout their six-month search.
Taylor Ciaveralla with her partner Stefan Najmeddine bought a block of land at the Sienna Rise estate in Plumpton by Villa World.
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“We definitely felt like we were competing,” Ms Ciavarella said.
“(When we bought) we had the idea of what we wanted, and when we walked in two others came in with us and we became super protective of what we wanted to buy.”
Her advice to others planning to buy in a new estate was to do their research and be ready to buy the day land was released.
Last weekend David Manibod bought a block of land at Stockland’s Mt Atkinson estate the same way most of us buy tickets for a concert.
Brother and sister David and Eliza Manibod with their mother, Sorasinh, and father, Phouvong, after buying the first block of land in Stockland’s Mt Atkinson estate in Truganina.
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The civil engineer had been eyeing off the estate for the past two years while completing his degree and said being first in line for its November 18 launch came down to meeting with agents and understanding the importance of being ready at 10am when the lots were made available online on a first click, first served basis.
“It was a pretty unexpected result, we were pretty lucky,” Mr Manibod said.
He was one of more than 7000 buyers who registered for the estate that will house about 4000 homes when complete in about 2037.
Just 84 lots were released the day he bought a 512sq m allotment with his sister Eliza.
The pair had help researching and preparing to buy over the past two years from mother Sorasinh and father Phouvong, and Mr Manibod said they had looked at a variety of other areas in the interim. Mt Atkinson’s amenities, size and the developer’s track record had won them over.
He added that the 12 or 18 month wait for the block to be settled was perfect for them, with a chance to continue saving in the interim.
“It’s ideal in our case to sort out finance,” he said.
“And by the time it titles you will be able to see the development progressing and new roads and infrastructure.”
