By Charlene Gatt
IT’S a buyers’ market in the City of Maribyrnong, with clearance rates plunging across the board.
Figures from the Real Estate Institute of Victoria reveal clearance rates have dropped to a low of 44 per cent in Maidstone, with only 38 houses of the 87 that have gone to auction this year actually selling.
The trend has been replicated across the municipality, with Braybrook clearance rates also at 44 per cent, with 57 houses going under the hammer and only 25 sold.
Clearances across Footscray (53 per cent), Kingsville (59 per cent), Maribyrnong (58 per cent), Seddon (60 per cent) and Yarraville (61 per cent) are also hovering in the low range.
Robert Larocca from the REIV said auction clearance rates in the West were in line with the broader Melbourne auction market.
“The factors that are effecting the market are also apparent in the West – a lack of confidence about the global economy, concerns over affordability,” Mr Larocca said.
“These things are resulting in a market that is well below the heights reached in 2007 and 2010, but still far better than a number of other years in the last decade.
“The REIV will be releasing its September quarter median prices in the middle of October and they will indicate what has happened with prices over the past three months.”
City of Maribyrnong house prices have fluctuated wildly this year, with quarterly median house prices for June showing an 11.2 per cent jump in Maidstone house prices and a 5.7 per cent rise in Yarraville prices, with smaller increases across Seddon and Braybrook.
On the other end of the spectrum, houses in Footscray, West Footscray and Maribyrnong all recorded price decreases.
