HTW Month In Review May 2015 – Prestige Homes
The upper crust! … is the theme for this month’s HTW Month In Review!
Prestige property sectors around the nation – is up for discussion…… Prestige markets are just great fun to analyse. On the serious side, the sector is often a weathervane on market direction. Prestige buyers and sellers also appear to be reasonably immune to interest rate movements.
Here are some of the highlights
– Properties valued at over $3 million are generally considered prestige properties in the Melbourne market.
– Prestige properties located in the Stonnington and Boroondara area, as well as inner bayside suburbs such as Middle Park and Brighton have been highly sought after over the past year.
– Suburbs to the inner east and south east of Melbourne’s CBD such as Armadale, Canterbury, Deepdene, Hawthorn, Kew, Malvern, South Yarra and Toorak have a high proportion of dwellings that sell for in excess of $3 million.
– Today these suburb’s retain some of the look and feel of earlier times and the Victorian era, period homes, either in original condition or renovated, are extremely popular with purchasers.
– The prestige apartment market through Melbourne’s CBD, St Kilda Road, Southbank, South Yarra, Toorak and Port Melbourne was stable across 2013 and 2014.
– The average clearance rate in March 2015 was 79.5%, much stronger than the 73.7% recorded last March. It is noted that high-priced areas generally achieve better results than budget suburbs.
– The market is strongly driven by international, primarily Asian investors, securing property within the CBD and the surrounding well-known suburbs with prestigious schools within close proximity.
– The market demand for prestige properties is currently very strong and more high-priced sales are anticipated this year.
– Since the RBA started to cut interest rates in August 2013, the current record low interest rate of 2.25% has sustained housing demand for local investors, while the depreciation in the Australian dollar has continued to attract foreign investment.
– The low mortgage rate is expected to further stimulate the existing strong market conditions. The rates are set to also attract first home buyers and local residents with self-managed superannuation funds who are looking to invest. This will strongly impact the average housing and apartment market.
– The fall of the Australian dollar has generated enormous interest from foreign investors, especially Chinese property buyers as more Chinese investors want to diversify their portfolios and they consider Australia a safe and long-term investment destination.
– Asian buyers are looking for properties within appropriate school zones and near universities.
– Within Melbourne buying property is strongly influenced by the zoning of the property in relation to the school zone requirements.
– Wealthy Asians and locals are ensuring they are within good school zones which are some of Melbourne’s most prestigious suburbs, including Kew and Toorak. This factor is a driver within the high end property market in Victoria.
– There is an increasing amount of large developments set to begin throughout the CBD and outer popular Melbourne suburbs.
– The prestigious property market will also continue to grow steadily with the Australian dollar declining, low interest rates and the appeal of Melbourne to Chinese buyers.
As always thanks to Alphabroker for this summary
