Melbourne apartment prices expected to drop 4.8%

The email I received from a local agent which references the report and the market softening:

(I was actually surprised an agent would share this information with buyers.)

Personally I definitely feel the apartment market has softened. The urgency I felt and witnessed a few months ago seems to have disappeared. I remember apartments weren't even making it to auction because the vendor was getting offers 10% above EPR. However recently I've noticed all the pass ins. In one western suburb alone (the suburb I'm looking to buy in) there were 3 apartments passed in at auction within the last few weeks.

Is anybody here considering investing in apartments and what is your reasoning for this based on the QBE report?

I don't have a choice, I have to buy something or else I'll be stuck living in stinking share houses.

 

Glittering skyscraper plans fall over, buyers refunded

This developer from Singapore has finally given up after lengthy litigation. Probably they can see that the unit market in Melbourne is turning down and want to cut their losses.

Interesting to note the numbers on corelogic monthly indices still show positive gains for Melbourne units both month on month and YoY

 

Just got off the phone with another local agent. His response was that the negative growth will only effect high rise apartments not flats.

 

Does that agent have flats that he is trying to sell ? ;D

 

Yes that's why he called. A flat in my area which I showed interest in was passed in at auction over the weekend.

 

well doesn't it mean that since the flat got passed in at auction, that flats in that area are also going starting to see some downward action soon?

 

I guess, unless it's just a dry period or the reserve price was too high which I don't think it was, I think it was set at exactly the market value. And I was surprised to find out that only person showed up to bid even though the EPR was blatantly underquoted.

 

I know you've been around a while but what we call units are what you (being in QLD) may call standalone villas. Units have probably always been a better investment option than apartments.

 

I thought you guys called 'em "Villa units"?

In any case, even if they are "standalone" and don't share a wall, they should still be sharing the title on a block of land so will be lumped together in Corelogics "unit" reporting with apartments/flats/townhouses and whatever REAs like to call them lol... I would expect that the majority of sales would still be made up of apartments(of the multistorey tower type) and not be affected much by these Villa unit sales which will probably only make up a minority of the total "Corelogic unit" monthly numbers and not really have any significant impact on the total figures.

P.S We get REAs in QLD calling higher-end Townhouses Villas. IMHO it is really a loosely used term to make the property sound more "posh".

 

I thought every Asian is a commie ?

in btw they have projects "The developer's other projects, Williamsons Estate Townhouses and Willow Apartments in Doncaster, were not affected." Guess they will dump them as well?

 

The apartment market has always been crap in Melbourne for the last 15 years of playing the market