MELTON real estate agents are hopeful property prices won’t slump any further with more houses now sitting unsold on the market than at the same time last year.
New data from SQM Research shows 1988 homes listed as unsold in Melton, Melton West and Toolern Vale at the end of last month, up 15per cent from the same time in June 2011.
Of the record 55,290 unsold houses in Melbourne in June – the highest number of any Australian capital city – most were concentrated in about 50 suburbs on Melbourne’s fringe, where more than 60per cent of all unsold Victorian homes are
located.
The property glut in the western suburbs of Hoppers Crossing, Tarneit and Truganina recorded the highest increase of 54per cent, to nearly 4050 unsold houses.
Real estate agents disputed the raw numbers, saying data included house and land packages and properties not yet built, but they agreed unsold housing stock had risen by about 15per cent.
Professionals Ryder Real Estate Melton manager Jayson Ryder said: “What’s sitting there on the market is over-priced, or not competitively priced, housing stock.
“When property values drop, the last person to acknowledge that is the person selling, because everyone wants the highest price for their properties and they hold out to try to get that price.
“But the market has kept moving downwards and there are probably people on the market who have dropped their price, but it’s been too little too late.
June figures from the Real Estate Institute of Victoria show the median price for a three-bedroom house in Melton has fallen 12per cent, from $314,000 in 2011 to $274,000.
Stockdale and Leggo agent Mark Mordaunt said the market was in the process of adjusting.
“Developers will have to temper themselves and move their new stages in line with demand,” he said.
