12 Helendoite Rd, Maroona, has just sold for $79,000 in what is likely the cheapest sale for a house in Victoria this year.
Melbourne’s clearance rate has slumped to a horror 47.8 per cent in the same week the city lost its status as a $1m housing market.
And while 112 home sellers were able to lock in a deal via auction over the week, one of the properties was sold at an extraordinarily tiny sum of just $79,000 — believed to be the cheapest home sale in the state this year.
Worryingly PropTrack’s preliminary 47.8 per cent clearance rate could get worse as it only reflected 324 results, but the city had been scheduled to host more than 400 sales under the hammer this week — a subdued number brought on by the King’s Birthday long weekend.
RELATED: Victoria: cheapest liveable house in Australia sells for just $80k
Most dangerous address in Aus: Ambassador Hotel units’ $80k sale
Inside Vic ‘dump’ turned viral TikTok sensation
Next week there are more than 1000 homes expected to test the market, and a similar clearance rate would leave in excess of 500 sellers scrambling to secure a buyer after a failed auction.
At the same time last year 66 per cent of homes were selling at auction.
This week’s clearance rate is the worst since August in 2021, when Melbourne was in the midst of a strict Covid lockdown and just 47.7 per cent of homes sold.
PropTrack senior economist Anne Flaherty said with a long weekend and current market conditions the result was “no surprise”, and had Melbourne following other major capitals including Sydney below the 50 per cent mark in the aftermath of the federal budget. The NSW capital recorded just 43.2 per cent of homes as sold this week.
The home’s living room has seen better days, and comes with a few potentially unwanted inclusions.
The kitchen is likely to get an overhaul that could add value to the home quickly.
On Monday, PropTrack also confirmed Melbourne had lost its status as a $1m capital, with the city’s median house price falling $10,000 in May to $995,000.
In one of the most telling results, one of the week’s strongest sales at auction was for a trashed regional Victorian home that attracted nine registered bidders — but sold for just $79,000.
The 12 Helendoite Rd, Maroona, home about 20km south of Ararat is believed to be the cheapest home sold in the state so far this year.
It has just pipped a string of apartments in Frankston’s old Ambassador Hotel that sold to a South Australian investor for $80,000 each earlier in the year, as well as a Nandaly property sold for the same figure after its hoarder former owner passed away.
Bedrooms have been turned into floordrobes.
The agent handling the sale has estimated at least 10 skip bins would be needed to clear it.
Maroona is a modest township that had a population of just 80 at the 2021 Census, and despite the home featuring an estimated 10 skips worth of rubbish inside it, nine prospective buyers emerged for the residence.
Eight of them made bids during the auction, with the event kicking off at $55,000.
Elders Real Estate Ararat’s David Jennings handled the sale and said the home was sold on a walk-in, walk-out basis, with bids coming in a mix of $2000 and $3000 increments throughout much of the auction.
“There was a mix of people there, some looking for storage, some wanting to restore it and some wanted to knock it down,” Mr Jennings said.
A shed in the rear yard has also been set aside for storage.
The back yard has less rubbish than inside, but still needs some elbow grease put into it.
A pair of first-home buyers claimed the keys and are planning to clear the home out before renewing it in what could be the most affordable entry to the state’s housing market this year.
Left in its current state for a number of years, he said it was unlikely there would be anything else in its price bracket on the market in the area any time soon.
“There were no comparables in that price range,” Mr Jennings said.
“And it will be quite a while before we see something else like that.”
One of the area’s old railway homes, the properties historic use would have been to house workers along the rail line or being rented out to others working through the area.
The agent said regional Victoria was not feeling the same market shock from rising interest rates and a federal budget that had particularly impacted investor appetites in major capitals, with interstate and Melbourne buyers still regularly pursuing homes in the region.
He noted that residences priced from $300,000 to $600,000 were consistently attracting investors because of their high rental returns, achieving 6 per cent and more.
Sign up to the Herald Sun Weekly Real Estate Update. Click here to get the latest Victorian property market news delivered direct to your inbox.
MORE: 200k home wrecking ball hits Albo housing plan
English (US) · 