Where are Victorian first home buyers purchasing?
New statistics surrounding the distribution of first home owner grant statistics are painting a fairly clear picture of where first time buyers are snapping up new properties across the state of Victoria.
The State Revenue Office of Victoria's latest statistics point to the following for metropolitan and regional distribution of the grants. This data covers the last quarter available - 1 October 2013 to 31 December 2013.
While, typically, the top 10 lists are dominanted by metropolitan areas on the outer suburbs of Melbourne, this quarter three inner city suburbs spilled into the top ten - South Melbourne 3205, Melbourne 3000 and Docklands 3008 as the 7th, 8th and 10th most popular postcodes respectively.
Regional:
1) Armstrong Creek, Charlemont, Freshwater Creek, Mount Dundeed (54 applications)
Interestingly, Property Observer recently reported that the Armstrong Creek area and surrounds in Geelong were seeing growth, despite the volume not necessarily being what developers were expecting.
2) Belmont, Grovedale, Highton, Marshall, Warn Ponds (25 applications)
3) Alfredton, Ballarat, Canadian, Invermay Park, Mt Clear, Mt Helen (24 applications)
4) Delacombe, Sebastopol (20 applications)
5) Mildura (20 applications)
6) Arnold, Ascot, Axe Creek, Bagshot, Cornella, Epsom, Huntly, Kimbolton (19 applications)
7) Blackwarry, Callignee, Carrajung, Flynn, Koornalla, Loy Yang, Traralgon (17 applications)
8) Dennington, Warrnambool (14 applications)
9) Clifton Springs, Curlewis, Drysdale, Mannerim, Marcus Hill, Wellington (13 applications)
10) Branditt, Caniambo, Colliver, Dunkirk, Shepparton (11 applications)
Metropolitan:
1) Cranbourne, Botanic Ridge, Cannons Creek, Devon Meadows, Skye (163 applications)
2) Hoppers Crossing, Tarneit, Truganina (146 applications)
3) Craigieburn, Donnybrook, Kalkallo, Mickleham, Roxburgh Park (109 applications)
4) Doreen, Mernda (108 applications)
5) Cocoroc, Derrimut, Point Cook, Quandong, Werribee (91 applications)
6) Cardinia, Clyde (70 applications)
7) South Melbourne (67 applications)
8) Wollert (59 applications)
9) Melbourne (55 applications)
10) Docklands (38 applications)
For a point of comparison, the overall statistics of both Metropolitan and Regional for September 2013 (1 July 2013 to 30 September 2013) looked like the following for the top suburbs:
1) Hoppers Crossing, Tarneit (265 applications)
2) Cranbourne, Devon Meadows, Skye (221 applications)
3) Craigieburn, Donnybrook, Roxburgh Park, Mickleham (210 applications)
4) Point Cook, Werribee, Derrimut (184 applications)
5) Doreen, Mernda (117 applications)
6) Pakenham, Rythdale (96 applications)
7) Burnside, Cairnlea, Caroline Springs, Deer Park, Ravenhall (80 applications)
8) Belmont, Grovedale, Highton, Marshall, Waurn Ponds (78 applications)
9) Croydon, Croydon Hills, Croydon North, Croydon South (77 applications)
10) Bangholme, Dandenong, Dunearn (69 applications)
It appears that a number of suburbs have remained popular over the past six months, largely in areas where the median price is sub-$400,000 and house and land offerings have been created. Do you know of a first home buyer who has purchased into one of these areas? Email: jduke@propertyobserver.com.au