Housing affordability is red hot on the economic and political agenda in Australia right now, and new figures stoking the fire show Melbourne’s median house price has soared to a new record high of $826,000.
Across the city, the median price has jumped by 7.6 per cent in the first three months of the year – that’s the strongest quarterly growth since 2013.
Real Estate Institute of Victoria’s president Joseph Walton explained the surging prices when he spoke to the ABC.
“Melbourne’s property market is experiencing a perfect storm,” he said.
“To see a 7.6 per cent rise in a quarter where property transactions are generally quite low is surprising.”
“We think one of the key growth drivers at the moment is strong buyer demand, which I guess is driven also by there being low supply to the market place.”
The top five suburbs for price growth in the quarter were Templestowe, Mount Eliza, Cranbourne North, Kilsyth and Mornington.
In Templestowe, where growth was the highest, the median house price has surged to $1.5 million.
As for other property markets around the State, the median apartment price jumped 3.8 per cent to $583,000 and the regional property median price jumped 4.1 per cent to $377,000.
The most affordable suburb is Melton West, recording a median price of $346,000, followed by Wyndham Vale, Werribee, Sunbury and Pakenham.
“Wyndham Vale is an area within outer Melbourne that we will see improvement and continued improvement with regard to infrastructure and amenity over time to meet its rising population growth,” Mr Walton said.
“There are still affordable opportunities in the marketplace at the moment.”
“Given our predictions with regard to continued price growth, we think it’s a market that’s important to participate in.”
