The Largest Property Value Gains and Falls in Victoria Since The GFC

Source: Nicholas Boullosa via Flickr

Earlier this month, RP Data’s head of research, Tim Lawless, published a blog post discussing the nation’s largest gains and greatest falls in residential property values across Australia since the Global Financial Crisis. The data revealed that houses in regional markets were the best performing over the last five years, while on average, units in coastal regions took the biggest hit.

In Victoria, the results reflected a similar trend. Homes in the Wimmera region, just east of the South Australian border, recorded one of Australia’s highest year-by-year increases in property values since 2008, with an average growth of 12.8 per cent per annum. This result was second only to Western Australia’s Pilbara region, which recorded a ‘spectacular’ capital gain of 19.8 per cent per annum.

In addition, homes in Victoria’s Central Highlands ranked fourth highest on the list with a 10.7 per cent per annum climb over the last five years.

“The largest gains have generally been recorded across regional markets around the country, particularly those associated with the mining sector,” said Mr Lawless, who warned that some of these markets are no longer generating such robust returns, due to the recent slowdown in the resources market.

Other Victoria regions to make the list included dwellings in Gippsland (8.9 per cent for houses and 8.7 per cent for units), Loddon (8.5 per cent for houses), Victoria’s Western District (7.1 per cent for houses), Barwon (6.4 per cent for houses) and Goulburn (5.7 per cent for houses).

On the flipside, the top 30 markets to experience the largest decline in house and unit values were primarily in holiday hotspots popular with retirees or reliant on seasonal rental incomes.

In Victoria, the largest decline in capital values from their peak was recorded in units located in the Barwon region, south of Geelong (-18.6 per cent). Barwon ranked as the nation’s third worst region,  just behind the flood ravaged Wide Bay-Burnett and Far North Queensland regions, which experienced -19.8 per cent and -19.3 per cent falls respectively.

“These markets were prime beneficiaries of the ‘sea change’ phenomenon where retirees or prospective retirees were driving migration and housing demand in these locations.  I would expect that this trend (and hence housing demand) has slowed substantially as many retirees and prospective retirees look to rebuild their wealth post GFC before embarking on their sea change,” said Mr Lawless.

Other Victoria regions to rank in the nation’s top 30 for negative growth included Melbourne’s units (-6.9 per cent) and Melbourne’s houses (-6.6 per cent).