11/10/2024
Ballarat Property Buyers and Investors take note!
The very popular and informative “Pizza & Property Podcast” has aired an episode very recently titled “18 Best & Worst Regional locations!”
In summary, it didn’t come across to well for little old Ballarat, actually we ranked 18th on the list...
Here are the key takeaways I took from the episode, and some commentary from myself.
$549k Median value – shows Ballarat is still affordable, so not bad
Values declined 4.5% in last 12 months – this is never good if your chasing growth, but also the reality of any investment
Yield 4.1% - not terrible, but there are much better yielding locations available
Inventory level out to 6 months now – whilst this is down from 7 months at the start of the year is still very high
Unemployment is 4.3% in Ballarat, which is the same as 10 years ago.
Good population growth of between 1.9 to 2.0% Annual Growth
Increasing Days on Market out to 90 days, was only 30 days 2 years ago – this is not a good trend
Vendor Discounting now close to 8%, 2 years ago was only 5.2% - this is good if you are a buyer trying to bargain a good deal
Supply level is going up – basic high school economics will tell you that this is not a good sign for strong capital growth
For sales listings increasing
Sales demand stagnant
In a nutshell my spiel on all this is this; if I had to buy a house to live in, in Ballarat now, I think it would be a good time, and I would be confident that I could drive a good price as the above numbers prove the supply is high and demand is weak. If I was buying in Ballarat to live, I would be avoiding the new estates. I would be buying in an established area. I would look to buy a home that has a larger than average land size for the area. If I could find a house that I could also add some value to via small cosmetic improvements, or minor renovations I would. Having been attending a lot of open homes lately, I can recount a number of properties in Ballarat that I think present great value for owner occupiers.
If I was an investor living in Ballarat, and looking to buy my first or next Investment Property I would look elsewhere. There are far too many other Regions and Cities, that have much more positive data. The only exception for me to this is if there was a subdivision or renovation opportunity, otherwise Ballarat is not on my radar at the moment, and probably won’t be for the next couple of years.
Data Analyst announce 18 Regional Areas Best to Worst 2024!You guys asked for it, and now we're delivering! This is part 1 of a 2-part series episode about 1...
