Wonthaggi leads real estate rise as property boom strikes
LOOKING for a property investment that will offer you more “bang for your buck”?
Experts say that Wonthaggi is the hottest ticket in the state.
The former mining town is seeing a boom in property values, with median house prices rising from $300,000 to $365,000 in the past 12 months.
The figure equates to a staggering 21.7 per cent.
But, according to Real Estate Institute of Victoria CEO Gil King, there is more than one local town on the march.
“The Bass Coast and South Gippsland property markets are among the hottest in regional Victoria,” he said.
“Several towns in the area have recorded median house price growth of more than 15 per cent in the past financial year including Coronet Bay, Cape Woolamai, Surf Beach, Ventnor and Wonthaggi.
“The area is popular with families who want a sea change, to get away from the hustle and bustle, as well as retirees and as a base for holiday homes.
“They are not making any more seaside land and the Bass Coast and South Gippsland regions offer many more affordable options than the Surf Coast or Mornington Peninsula for example.
“A house in Phillip Island’s capital of Cowes will set you back $514,000 compared with $1,212,888 for Lorne and $745,000 for Dromana, so buyers can get more bang for their buck.
“The area is also extremely popular with tourists and has a reliable and constant stream of attractions and events which makes the area an attractive place for investors seeking high rental yields.”
Alex Scott real estate agent Dan Huther said residential and commercial properties were both selling fast – driven in large part by hungry buyers from outside the region.
“Not everything has gone up 21 per cent, but across the whole it’s been good. We talked at a sales meeting the other day about the fact that it’s out-of-town driven,” he said.
“The prices we’re achieving aren’t local to local – they’re out of town buyers coming in. Often they’ve sold on the Peninsula.
“The buyers are like a boomerang, moving from the Peninsula, Pakenham and the South East. We have a few people from the city coming down, but that’s only a scattering.”
He said that the purchase of investment properties in Wonthaggi had “definitely picked up” since the federal election in May.
“That was only days after that we noticed that. Two to three months before the election it was like someone had pulled a handbrake on,” he said.
“We manage in excess of 400 rental properties through this office and we know that vacancy rates are running at less than one per cent.”
One savvy Alex Scott client has several houses in Wonthaggi, purchased after he took advice back in the 1990s to “find a town not too far from the coast with infrastructure growth potential”.
“People are selling in Berwick for $700,000 to $800,000 and finding something in Wonthaggi much cheaper,” Mr Huther said.
Typically it’s a happy lifestyle change, with more money in the bank and more space for the kids to roam.
“Wonthaggi has been discovered – clean air, good infrastructure, money into the hospital, good schools, not a lot of crime and you usually get a park,” he said.
“People are saying that going back toward the Peninsula it’s just a rat race.”
Matt Dunn
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Posted by Tayla Kershaw on Aug 23 2019. Filed under Featured, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
