By Ann Marie Angebrandt
LAST week’s interest rate increase will have a minimal affect on Hobsons Bay home owners and home hunters, according to local real estate agents.
The quarter-of-a per-cent hike could take some heat out of the property markets in Altona Meadows, Altona North and Newport, which have seen strong double-digit growth over the past year.
But it will not be enough to dampen enthusiasm for the area – fuelled by low supply and high demand – which remains a haven for investors and offers segmented price choices for home buyers.
“For your Williamstown buyers, who are generally on to their second or third home, this increase can be easily absorbed,” said Adrian Butera, a director of Compton and Green Real Estate Williamstown and Maribyrnong.
Hobsons Bay’s house prices reflect a trend recorded by the Urban Development Institute of Australia that shows the average Melbourne home has almost doubled in value over the past six years.
The price explosion has virtually locked out most young people wanting to purchase their first property in some of Hobsons Bay’s hotter areas, especially Williamstown.
“The whole area is seen as highly desirable because it’s close to the CBD, close to the water, and relatively affordable when compared with suburbs on the other side of the city,” he said.
The increase will add an extra $50 a month to repayments on an average $250,000 mortgage.
Home-hunters say the double whammy of high prices and a rate increase will force them to save a bit longer, or think twice about where they can live.
Sharon Nicol, 30, and husband Steven, 33, who currently rent with their two pre-school children, say their first choice of Yarraville is no longer an option.
“The prices around here are too high now, so we’re starting to look at the Altona area,” she said.
Under Melbourne 2030 plans, Hobsons Bay must add a further 11,000 households into the municipality.
They will likely come from rezoning industrial land into residential, helping ease the supply of housing stock, but not diluting the market, said Mr Butera.
“Those areas earmarked for rezoning will appeal to a different demographic, such as newer Australians who want high-density, low-cost housing, or investors from the other side of the Yarra.
“Traditionally, they have not been interested in the area, but all that is changing.”
