HIA: Victoria leads nation in new home boom with more to come
Written by Nathan Mawby, 17 June 2021
Source: realestate.com.au 

Victoria is leading Australia’s home building boom with 11 of the nation’s top new housing growth areas located here.

The Housing Industry Association’s latest Population and Residential Building Hotspots report shows Mickleham-Yuroke to the city’s north and Rockbank-Mt Cottrell in the west are the country’s two top hot spots.

Wollert and Cranbourne South also made the top five, with regions ranked on the value of residential building work approved in the 2019-2020 financial year, with a $150m minimum, then by population growth rate.

HIA economist Angela Lillicrap said while “Victoria has been dominating national lists for a couple of years”, the rankings were set for a major shake-up in the report’s future iterations as a result of HomeBuilder incentives and population growth booming in regional suburbs.

“But the reason we have seen Victoria dominate is because of all the money put into infrastructure and planning and facilitating new estates,” Ms Lillicrap said.

This meant the state was positioned well to follow its past path to success in the aftermath of the pandemic.

Volume home building group Burbank national general manager of residential housing Louis Sultan said new home sales were still soaring across Melbourne, with many buyers seeking more open living and dedicated home offices in the wake of Covid-19 lockdowns.

“Melbourne’s outer-north, west and southeastern suburbs have really been standout performers, especially thanks to the HomeBuilder Grant and the other regional grants and concessions on offer,” Mr Sultan said.

“The demand of people choosing to build new homes regionally has increased, especially in areas such as Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo as buyers seek more land and a more relaxed lifestyle at a value price.’’

VICTORIA’S NEW HOME HOT SPOTS

Mickleham-Yuroke: $412.093m + 32.8% population growth

Rockbank-Mt Cottrell: $501.993m +29.1% population growth

Wollert: $431.117m + 20.3% population growth

Cranbourne South: $209.128m + 15.9% population growth

Werribee: $276.044m + 14.3% population growth

Cranbourne East: $416.193m + 12.8% population growth

Melton South: $359.369m + 9.1% population growth

Truganina: $328.175m + 8% population growth

Grovedale (Geelong): $277.933m + 7.5% population growth

Alfredton (Ballarat): $164.645m + 6.9% population growth

Source: HIA Population & Residential Building Hotspots Report

Woodlea estate project director Matthew Dean said the Rockbank area was likely to stay high on the list amid surging demand from buyers in the city’s west since April 2020.

“Since the pandemic started we have had our sales compared to the previous year double,” Mr Dean said.

Jen and David Waddell along with kids Esther, 8, and Lydia, 6, will be moving into their new three-bedroom home in the Rockbank area’s Woodlea estate in November this year and said they weren’t surprised to hear it was a home building hot spot.

“There are great facilities and it’s very family friendly with lots of parks and good schools,” Ms Waddell said.

The family were also looking forward to helping establish a new neighbourhood “like when I was a kid”, she added.

Matthew Imbriano signed on to build his first home, a three-bedroom house, in Mickleham’s Merrifield estate yesterday.

Mr Imbriano said people had been “flooding new estates like flies” as he had been looking for a place to call home.

“I never realised there’d be so many. It’s lots of couples and families.”