Revealed: The places where houses won’t sell

Vendors are waiting up to a year to sell in the nation’s
worst-affected areas, which include high-end suburbs like

Double Bay – where homes fetch an average of $ 3 million – and

Church Point in
Sydney,
Newstead in
Brisbane and
Perth’s trendy
Cottesloe. But regional outposts Denham and Mt Barker in
Western Australia have been hardest hit, with asking prices
slashed by up to 30 per cent, earning each a spot on a list of
the most discounted properties in Australia, according to RP Data
figures.

Other black spots include Coochiemudlo and Rockhampton in
Queensland and Bright in Victoria.

RP Data National Research Director Tim Lawless said many property
blackspots were “lifestyle markets” in regional coastal areas where
demand had evaporated.

“Essentially, areas where the average selling time is relatively
high, it generally indicates that demand for available homes is
low, available housing supply may be high, or vendors may be
expecting prices that are out of line with buyer price
expectations,” Mr Lawless said.

“In some instances the statistics may be affected by small housing
markets where a few homes that are taking a very long time to sell
are driving the statistics higher.”

The time properties spend on the market is more likely to blow out
in small towns hit by an economic downturn, Kevin Young CEO of
property investment consultants The Investors Club said.

“In tough times with low discretionary spending these pockets
suffer,” Mr Young said. “It comes back to demand. Coochiemudlo is a
small island that you need to catch a ferry to. It’s a place where
people might retire too or have a holiday home.

“Similarly, River Heads is a small coastal town and Rockhampton is
suffering higher than national average levels of unemployment which
means there is simply lower demand.”

But even in capital cities with strong population growth and low
unemployment the bracket over $ 1 million can also be slow because
of unrealistic expectations from vendors pricing.

Chris Gray CEO of Empire Property Portfolios said buyers were more
savvy these days: “They worry that if no one else has snapped up a
property that has been on the market for months, then there must be
something wrong with it that they can’t see.”

Market glut

Almost 311,286 properties are for sale across Australia, the
highest in more than five years and almost 30 per cent more than
the same time last year.

In
Melbourne, there are 50 per cent more properties for sale, 30
per cent in Sydney, 14 per cent in Brisbane and almost 40 per
cent in
Adelaide.

House prices have dropped amid the selling binge, slipping 4 per
cent nationally in the year to October to a median of $ 536,011.

Meanwhile, auction clearance rates have remained below 50 per cent
for 20 consecutive weeks in Australia’s largest housing markets,
and with Christmas looming an improvement is not expected until
next year.

RP Data’s Tim Lawless said market confidence had been battered by
global economic turmoil and rate jitters.

Buyer numbers are down by 13 per cent and home sales 33 per cent
compared to the peak number of transactions in the last growth
cycle (September 2009), Mr Lawless said.

“Before we start to see any material improvement in home values and
time on the market we will need to see confidence levels rise,” he
said.

Slump

In other sluggish signs, Australia’s capital city home prices have
been led down by a heavy slump in Brisbane, according to a private
report.

Home prices in the regions fell 3.4 per cent on a
seasonally-adjusted basis, according to data released by RP
Data-Rismark.

Brisbane led the drop in values for the year to October, with an 8
per cent slump, after a 1.6 per cent decline in the month of
October.

Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth home values have all declined 5 per
cent or more in the year to October.
Sydney was relatively steady, with a 1.1 per cent loss of value.

All capital home prices fell in October, except Sydney, which was
unchanged, and
Canberra and Hobart, which added 1.6 per cent and 3.1 per
cent, respectively, although Hobart’s data was based on the final
September results.
 

Top ten blackspots

Denham WA 269 days

Mt Barker WA 248

Robertson 233

Bright Vic 233

Moruya NSW 233

Bowraville NSW 227

Coochiemudlo Island Qld 225

Rockhampton Qld 225

Donald Vic 225

River Heads Qld 222

Source: News

Property Management Brisbane

Games velodrome to be built in Brisbane