House prices have fallen in a string of popular Victorian tourist towns as holiday-home owners and investors sell up amid cost-of-living pressures and land tax increases . The steepest fall was in Mansfield at the foot of the Victorian Alps, down 9.1 per cent in 12 months to a median of $663,750, Domain’s House Price Report for the June quarter shows.
House prices in Bass Coast, home to Inverloch and Phillip Island, fell by 6.3 per cent to a median of $726,000 in the year to June, while the Northern and Southern Grampians fell more than 7 per cent each. Domain chief of research and economics Dr Nicola Powell said prices in much of regional Victoria had fallen below the pandemic peak.
“We really have seen prices soften slightly, and they’re stable over the most recent quarter. This actually presents quite unique conditions compared to what we’d seen in the prior few years, where price growth was just running away with itself. It was unsustainable,” she said.
Powell said an increase in second-home-owner selling had contributed to falling prices in some popular holiday destinations, offering a wider range of housing stock for buyers keen to break into the regional property market. “What regional buyers will be finding now is that fear of missing out is certainly not there,” she said. “I do think that provides grounds for many buyers to place in offers and seize this unique opportunity to actually purchase when prices are below peak.
” Powell said while prices ha.