New vendor discount rates reveal where buyers have upper hand

1 week ago 13

248 Autumn St, Manifold Heights was snapped in a week, beating price hopes to sell for $1.7m before Christmas.

Fresh data reveals the Geelong suburbs where homebuyers have the upper hand when it comes to negotiating the best price deals.

The latest PropTrack figures for vendor discounting show areas with the biggest drop between the original advertised price and what properties actually sold for.

Coastal areas remained the region’s strongest buyer markets over the past 12 months, with discounts as high as 10 per cent in some coastal towns.

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The typical house in Portarlington sold for 10.8 per cent below the initial asking price, while in Anglesea and Lorne sellers took a 10.1 per cent and 10 per cent cut, respectively.

Of the urban areas, buyers were best placed to negotiate in Manifold Heights, where there was a 6.7 per cent median discount between the listing and sale price.

House prices have continued to slide in the blue-chip suburb, which has dropped off Geelong’s list of million-dollar suburbs.

The median house price now sits on $960,000, down 23 per cent on February last year, according to PropTrack.

Twelve months ago, a typical house in Manifold Heights was selling for $1.26m.

This renovated family home at 4 Purrumbete Ave, Manifold Heights, sold for $3.15m in May, notching up the suburb’s third highest residential price.

This four-bedroom house at 23 Girton Cres, Manifold Heights, smashed priced hopes by almost $300,000 when it sold for at auction $1.78m in November.

Geelong real estate advocate Tony Slack said a string of premium circa $3m sales over a short period had “distorted” the suburb’s median.

He said while demand typically outstripped supply in Manifold Heights, with no recent sales achieving anything close to that mark, it was no surprise values had eased.

“That is why you have seen the discount in Manifold Heights because the owner’s expectations have been inflated on price for that very reason,” Mr Slack said.

“Now we see the opposite where medians come down because we haven’t seen those top end sales.

“We tried to price your property according to the growth and the median in the suburb but the reality is your property did not lift on the back of those million-dollar sales.”

The data shows prices were most stable in Geelong’s southern growth corridor, including the high-volume suburbs of Armstrong Creek, Mount Duneed and Charlemont.

InvestorKit senior research analyst Junge Ma says days on the market is falling in Geelong. Picture: Tim Hunter.

Taking longer to sell than the average home in a suburb can be a trigger for a vendors to rethink their pricing.

But InvestorKit senior research analyst Junge Ma said homes were now typically selling faster across Geelong as the market recovered.

She said demand was finally catching up with supply, after the inventory – the ratio between the number of listings and sales – blew out to more than five in 2023.

“What we are seeing is the excess of supply is being absorbed little by little and now the price is finally picking up the growth speed,” Ms Ma said.

“Other indications like days on market, how many days houses would stay on the market, is also decreasing fast, that is a good sign.”

GEELONG MEDIAN VENDOR DISCOUNT FIGURES

Suburb	Property Type	Median Sale Price 12 months	Median Vendor Discount
Portarlington	H	$850,000	-10.8
Anglesea	H	$1,330,000	-10.1
Lorne	H	$1,920,000	-10
Indented Head	H	$760,000	-8.3
Point Lonsdale	H	$1,200,000	-8.3
St Leonards	H	$722,500	-7.7
Queenscliff	H	$1,285,000	-7.6
Barwon Heads	H	$1,440,000	-7.4
Connewarre	H	$1,820,000	-6.8
Manifold Heights	H	$960,000	-6.7
East Geelong	H	$862,000	-6.5
Fyansford	H	$980,000	-6.5
Jan Juc	H	$1,320,000	-6.3
Bell Post Hill	H	$691,500	-5.6
Newtown	H	$1,082,500	-5.5
Teesdale	H	$965,000	-5.2
Norlane	H	$493,944	-5.1
Curlewis	H	$687,500	-5
Ocean Grove	H	$950,000	-5
Drysdale	H	$760,000	-4.9
Geelong	H	$920,250	-4.8
Belmont	H	$708,000	-4.7
Herne Hill	H	$755,000	-4.5
Bannockburn	H	$806,000	-4.4
Bell Park	H	$680,000	-4.4
Clifton Springs	H	$680,000	-4.3
Newcomb	H	$605,750	-4.3
Winchelsea	H	$640,000	-4.3
Highton	H	$898,000	-4.2
Torquay	H	$1,200,000	-4.2
Geelong West	H	$857,500	-3.7
Rippleside	H	$1,150,000	-3.7
Grovedale	H	$700,000	-3.5
Inverleigh	H	$1,150,000	-3.5
Leopold	H	$690,200	-3.5
Corio	H	$540,000	-3.4
North Geelong	H	$645,000	-3.4
Waurn Ponds	H	$790,000	-3.4
Lara	H	$700,000	-3.1
Hamlyn Heights	H	$737,000	-2.9
Charlemont	H	$640,000	-2.6
St Albans Park	H	$667,750	-2.6
Mount Duneed	H	$705,000	-2.3
Armstrong Creek	H	$670,000	-2.2