By Charlene Gatt
A TOPSY-turvy year in politics and footy has slowed Maribyrnong’s booming property market.
The Real Estate Institute of Victoria’s quarterly median figures for December 2010 revealed the suburbs of Maribyrnong, Maidstone, Seddon, Yarraville and Braybrook had less than 30 sales since September, causing some median house prices to experience a drop.
Maribyrnong house prices suffered the biggest decline, with prices dropping from a median $977,500 to $810,000, while the price of Yarraville units plunged 19.3 per cent to $411,750.
There were no sales figures for Tottenham or Kingsville.
Jas H Stephens senior sales consultant Branko Lemaic said it had been an unusually quiet quarter, with the spring and summer months traditionally the busiest sales periods of the year.
“We had a couple of little hiccups last year with the Federal election dragging on, the footy dragging on and then we had the State election,” he said.
“There was a little bit of uncertainty with government changeovers as well. I think it has people sitting back a bit and waiting to see what happens before making any decisions about moving forward.”
Mr Lemaic said the November interest rate hike and uncertainty surrounding the Regional Rail Link and housing acquisitions were also to blame.
“I think people would have seen a changing market. The first six months of the year was really buoyant, and the last six months was quite stagnant and stop-start,” he added.
“I think this year we’ll see a lot of stability because there’s not that much on the market, and there doesn’t seem to be any roadblocks like we had last year with the elections and what not.
“You should see a bounce back in the first quarter, or definitely by the second quarter.”
The trend was not paralleled across the state, with the Melbourne median price jumping 6.9 per cent to more than $600,000, prompting concern among first-home buyers.
