May 12, 2022 - Noel Jones

The April property market had a lot to contend with. There were two consecutive long weekends, school holidays, an election campaign, and the speculation of rising interest rates, yet the market remained steady, and auction numbers exceeded any previously on record for the month of April.

Melbourne’s outer east again recorded the second highest auction clearance rate of all regions, performing 5.7 percentage points ahead of the average.

As was also the case in March, the Mornington Peninsula was the only region to record a higher result.

The number of properties being sold prior to auction has continued to decline, from 20.4% in March, to 19.6% this month; six months ago, as Melbourne exited a long period of lockdown, this figure was considerably higher, at 28.7%.

CoreLogic’s Home Price Indices reported a decline of 0.1% across the metropolitan median dwelling price.

This is the fifth month of flattening conditions, although they have been micro decreases that have made little impact on buying or selling conditions in Melbourne’s regions.

Whilst it’s being touted that the market is now becoming more favourable for buyers than sellers, at Noel Jones we are still witnessing strong buyer enquiry.

While traditionally, federal elections stall the market, we also know that historically that once an outcome is determined, the market usually returns to its normal state, and with less property on the market, competition will no doubt be strong, which will positively impact prices.

Pleasingly, figures reported for April show that Melbourne’s rental market continues to strengthen.

The April vacancy rate was reported as 1.7%, which was a further 0.1% improvement from the March result; this is in comparison to a vacancy rate of 4% just 12 months ago.

Melbourne’s vacancy rate is now only 0.1% off the March 2020 figure, and 0.6% off the record low that was recorded in 2018.

The City of Knox has recorded a vacancy rate of 0.6%, the 4^th lowest in all Melbourne areas, whilst the City of Whitehorse and City of Manningham recorded monthly improvements of 0.5% and 0.4% respectively.

On 3^rd May, after months of speculation, the Reserve Bank increased interest rates for the first time in 11 years, in a bid to curb soaring inflation hitting households.

The RBA’s quarter of a percentage point (0.25%) increase was passed on to customers of the four big banks within less than 24 hours of the announcement.

Daniel D’Assisi, the Director of Noel Jones Doncaster believes that although this will impact some segments of the market, as we are coming off an all-time low base, this should contribute to a stabilisation of the market rather than a downturn in prices. He says the vast majority of his clients had built the speculative increases into their figures before making recent purchases.

If you are ready to take the next steps in your Real Estate journey, we would love to be of assistance. Call your local Noel Jones office and see how we can help.

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