Urban IQ: Coverage of Victoria's Housing Market

Created to help fill the gap in knowledge available to the urban development industry, URBAN IQ is a portal of knowledge for residential property professionals.

“A lot changed in 2016 in the urban development industry; here at UDIA, we had to start thinking differently about how we do business, about the policies and regulations that govern how we do what we do,” said UDIA Victoria CEO Danni Addison.

"Victoria's population growth is still at record levels. It underpins our economic foundations and it shows that there is going to be unprecedented demand for housing and services in Victoria well into the next few years," she said.

Created to help fill the gap in knowledge available to Victoria’s urban development industry, URBAN IQ is a market intelligence initiative by UDIA.

Key takeaways:

• In the last quarter, Melbourne house prices rose to a median price of $770,000, which is an increase of 8.8% from the corresponding quarter a year earlier. Unit prices rose to a median of $563,500 – an increase of 5.3%, and land prices rose to a median of $235,000, which is an increase of 9.8%.

• Unfortunately for Victoria’s first homebuyers, between 2015 and 2016 we didn’t see much improvement. The number of loans to first homebuyers remains the same, only contributing about 15% of overall home loans, and highlighting an affordability issue for young Victorians that is not news to us at all.

• First homebuyers in Victoria are borrowing on average 320,000 for their first home purchase. This is in comparison to non first homebuyer mortgages, which are around $55,000 more – showing the latter group’s increased buying power.

• The top 3 priorities for homebuyers are:
  Price
  2. Block size and
  3. Parklands and open space.

• In terms of proximity, homebuyers are looking for property that is close to shops and major roads or freeways.