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Regional land price surges $55k as First Home Owner Grant trimmed – Cornerstone Wealth Management
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Regional land price surges $55k as First Home Owner Grant trimmed

Regional Victorian first-home buyers have been dealt a double blow, with land prices surging $55,000 in a year and the government axing a $10,000 grant.

A CoreLogic-Housing Industry Association report released this week shows in the past financial year the cost of a patch of dirt surged a jaw-dropping $96,550 in Geelong, $76,000 in Shepparton, $64,500 in Ballarat, and more than $37,000 in Bendigo, as the wider Victorian median land price rose to $250,000.

But despite demand from investors and those selling a house in Melbourne driving the growth, on July 1 the state government quietly rescinded a $10,000 bonus grant used by thousands of first-home buyers building a new home.

The First Home Owner Grant still entitles them to a $10,000 grant from the state’s coffers, but in the previous financial year there was an additional $10,000 on the table if you bought a new home outside of the big smoke.

It attracted 2783 applications from just 10 postcodes in the 12 months to its closing date on June 30.

A shrinking land supply is helping drive prices up in many regional areas including Torquay, where the last development site of scale is now for sale. Picture: Alan Barber

This included 902 applications in the Armstrong Creek area west of Geelong, 318 around Ballarat and 275 in the Upper Plenty, Hidden Valley region north of Melbourne.

 

Ballarat-based Samm Jay Property buyer’s agent Simon Brearley said with investors and buyers relocating from Melbourne, “affordability is becoming a bit of an issue”.

“It has been good for first-home buyers, but it is getting harder,” Mr Brearley said.

“There’s pressure from so many different directions.”

HIA chief economist Tim Reardon said the $55,000 increase in regional Victoria’s median land price reflected “the shift in population out of Melbourne” and “the relatively small amount of land to accommodate that population”.

A substantial increase in the number of new homes in Victoria could help slow housing affordability issues.

“We have seen a significant shift out of Melbourne towards regional Victoria,” Mr Reardon said.

Source: News.com.au

Posted in Regional News