Buyers Advocate Melbourne

Some interesting data has emerged about the average hold time for property owners in capital cities.

I was actually surprised to see Melbourne with a hold time of now 10 years.  That’s impressive.

Melbourne has the highest hold time anywhere in Australia.

It’s safe to say that high turnover areas can see more volatility in prices than those that are low turnover.  These graphs might help explain why Melbourne has been so consistent for such a long period of time now.

Sydney and Brisbane follow Melbourne.

Visual clues from Melbourne currently show renovations happening in abundance.  I think once settled,  people are opting to renovate rather than move.

It’s expensive to sell and buy so it seems logical that home owners will try and work with what they’ve got.

I’d expect this hold time to increase over the years to come.

Looking at different local government areas,  Victorian locations dominate the list for long average hold times.

While the shortest hold period and highest turnover locations don’t have a Victorian location amongst it.

*Source RP Data

The REIV has some stats about the amount of reported auctions over the past decade:

What’s evident is the change in Median values having an effect on the amount of auctions in Victoria.

In other words,  Social Proof of success is a huge driver for vendors to sell by public auction.

It’s also a good reason why we haven’t seen too much of a decrease in values in any given year over the past decade.  Stock levels have restricted when prices have started to soften.

As auctions are such a visible guide to potential sellers.  Many might see a failed auction and say to themselves ‘well now is not a good time to sell’ hence restricting supply.

The problem begins when people ‘have to sell”.

Interesting data.

Interesting Stats from the ABS;  What this might mean…

The ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) is a good place to turn for interesting stats and general changes in the makeup of the country.

August has released some interesting key trends:

Victoria has really seen a large decline in building approvals with a seasonally adjusted decrease of -8.1%.  More details on this are in the video wrap.

*The past 12 months have seen the average Australian travel 14,100 km by car.  While high,  this is still down from 2006 were the average was 14,600 km.

What surprised me was that Victoria was indeed the highest (with Northern Territory) out of all states. The average Victorian traveled 14,600 km over the past 12 months.  South Australia has seen the least with an average of 11,900.

*Unemployment increases slightly to 5.1%.  More full time jobs disappear however part time jobs increase substantially.

I think these three trends have been very evident for some time and keep growing.  Ramifications for property are huge and I encourage all to consider when buying a piece of Real Estate.

To take a generalist type of view,  I think we are seeing the following shift:

Melbourne is actually one of the most spread out cities on the planet,  that’s right – the planet.  We’ve pushed the boundaries in the pursuit of the great australian dream.  This might help to explain the higher than average KM’s travelled by car in Victoria.

Melbourne perhaps offers this country’s most diverse housing options.  Those that live the urban inner city lifestyle would go nowhere else in Australia to experience better.  The city is easy to navigate,  the food is good and you can really ditch the car if need be.

Yet the suburbs have been built for a changing mindset that started way back.  A time when you had the one job for life and inexpensive fuel.  The time when traffic was bearable and the city wasn’t a safe place to bring up the kids.

With trends such as a more flexible labour market,  smaller dwelling preferences, lifestyle focus, and less reliance on cars -  this shift might take hold quicker than we think.