General News
20 January, 2024
House sales appeal / Rainbow declared most affordable suburb in state
Rainbow is well positioned to attract tree-changers escaping the high prices of Melbourne after being ranked the most affordable suburb in the state.
Rainbow is well positioned to attract tree-changers escaping the high prices of Melbourne after being ranked the most affordable suburb in the state.
Independent property analytics company CoreLogic ranked Rainbow as Victoria’s most affordable suburb - with a median house value of $149,475 - and the fourth most affordable regional suburb in the country, based on 17 house sales in the year to September 2023.
Warracknabeal ($206,005 - 52 sales), Dimboola ($208,896 - 21 sales) and Nhill ($222,670 - 51 sales) take out third, fourth and fifth spots on the house affordability ladder.
CoreLogic’s Best of the Best annual report paints a snapshot of the entire country, broken down into capital cities and regional suburbs.
Horsham unit owners should be the happiest in the state with the rural city now ranked the best performing suburb in Victoria.
Units in the municipality have grown in value by 9.4 per cent to a median $316,646, according to data from independent property analytics company CoreLogic.
Horsham ranked the eighth most affordable suburb, based on the sale of 45 units.
Nhill is the region’s best performer for house values, showing the third strongest growth in the state - an 8.2 per cent increase to a median value of $222,670.
The Wimmera township also takes out top spot in Victoria for house rental yields, returning 7.3 per cent for a median gross rent of $314.
Horsham is the state’s ninth best performer in this category, with a house rental yield of 5.5 per cent for a median rent of $387.
St Arnaud ($275,632 - 37 sales) and Edenhope ($281,452 - 19 sales) also make the top 10, taking up seventh and eighth spots.
Nationally, property values saw an unlikely upswing in the face of rising rates and low sales volumes, according to the CoreLogic report.
Housing values made a full recovery through 2023, following a short, sharp decline of -7.5 per cent between May 2022 and January 2023.
Home values rose 8.3 per cent from the trough in January, and increased 7 per cent in the year to November.
This was the equivalent of an annual uplift in the median home value of $49,583, to $753,564.
Melbourne was the most sluggish of the state capitals, recording a growth of just 3 per cent in home values to November, compared to 10.2 per cent in Sydney and 13.5 per cent in market-leading Perth.
CoreLogic says 2023 was a “test of resilience” for housing values and financial stability more broadly, with demand skewing towards the middle-to-lower end of the pricing spectrum later in the year.
And, as rental affordability continues to be stretched in metropolitan areas, CoreLogic says there will likely be a “gradual restructuring of rental demand”, pointing to a migration of tenants to more affordable markets - such as country Victoria.