Elsternwick property market rebounds as homebuyers return, says real estate agent

Homebuyers have flocked back to the Elsternwick real estate market, as confidence improves after the nationwide property downturn, says local real estate agent Daniel Ashton.

Elsternwick median house prices leaped 29 per cent in the three months to September 30, 2019, compared to the prior quarter, the Real Estate Institute of Victoria reported.

“There has been a complete turnaround from earlier this year, so the market is definitely back with a vengeance,” said Mr Ashton, the sales manager at Biggin & Scott Elsternwick.

Home prices started falling across Melbourne and other parts of Australia last year, however real estate markets like Elsternwick have been recovering in recent months.

“There’s a lot of buyers looking in Elsternwick, they’re mostly young professional couples and families, depending on the size of the property,” Mr Ashton said.

“There has been very strong bidding, which is being reported across most of Melbourne, and the clearance rate is back up into very healthy territory, so things are moving again.”

Elsternwick continues to stand out as a “high demand market”, with 792 online visits per property during the year to November, according to RealEstate.com.au.

The Biggin & Scott Elsternwick team recently sold a three-bedroom house on Riddell Parade for $1.675 million, as well as a four-bedroom house on Liscard Street for $3.15 million in September.

Despite the renewed buyer interest in Elsternwick properties, the number of homes on the market remained tight.

“It’s a pretty tightly held area, so there is a reasonable amount of stock on the market for the time of year we’re in, but there isn’t a flood of stock,” Mr Ashton noted.

“There is never a lot of stock on, so it doesn’t matter how good or bad the market is.”

That said, seller confidence was on the rise, driven by more homes selling under the hammer with strong competitive bidding, the sales manager said.

“You can see that people are bidding and [buyer] confidence is up, so there’s certainly a lot more confidence in sellers as well,” he said.

“A lot of properties that perhaps didn’t sell during the downturn… those sellers are now calling us and talking about having another crack at selling.”

Looking ahead, Mr Ashton said the market would quieten down in the final weeks before Christmas and restart properly towards the end of January.

“Everyone goes away on holidays and Melbourne becomes pretty quiet in January before the market fires up again after Australia Day,” he said.

“We’ll see auction properties starting in very late January and then we go on again.

“All round, it’s just a better mood in a better market, that’s really where the Elsternwick market is right now.”

Real estate conditions have improved since May this year, when property agents reported mixed sales results over last summer.