Brimbank house sales boom; prices on a high

Brimbank’s real estate market is on a roll.

Star Weekly spoke to two real estate agents last week to find out how the Brimbank market was performing, what suburbs to look out for and predictions for the rest of spring and summer.

Barry Plant Taylors Lakes director James Hatzimoisis, who last week scored Brimbank’s biggest property sale of the year, selling an eight-hectare property in Keilor for $2.8 million, said the sale confirmed the strength of the Brimbank market.

“What’s changed is that we’ve seen investors be a lot more active this year,” he said.

“There was a severe stock shortage, a lack of supply, from about April through to August, so while demand was on the improve, there wasn’t enough property to satisfy the demand … as a result prices started strengthening.

“Just in the last month we’ve seen a late run of spring listings come on [the market]. There’s certainly a lot more auctions … clearance rates have been really, really strong locally.”

Bells Real Estate director Stella Kyriakou said the Sunshine office had been setting price records in the past few months.

Ms Kyriakou said Sunshine had experienced great growth in the past year, and West Sunshine, Braybrook, and Deer Park, Sydenham had also performed well.

“In the last quarter, we have witnessed a shortage of properties being offered up for sale,” she said.

“But demand has remained strong across Brimbank, resulting in, historically, some of the highest sale prices ever.”

“There’s been a change in the buyer demographic. Buyers are now younger, many are now educated and white-collar workers, and a great percentage are coming from the inner west and eastern suburbs due to our close proximity to the city, quality homes and affordability.”

Ms Kyriakou predicted the market would remain strong through spring and summer.

Real Estate Institute of Victoria chief executive Enzo Raimondo said more than 60 per cent of Brimbank properties sold this year had been private sales, while a third went under the hammer.

Mr Raimondo said while the Melbourne market may moderate over the coming 12 months, there would still be room for residential price growth across the western suburbs.