RECENTLY, there has been much publicity about declining property prices, along with plenty of debate about the causes of the decline.
Cotality provides residential property indices, home value tracking and publishes major reports on housing trends, such as the Home Value Index.
According to Cotality, Australia’s Home Value Index fell 0.7 per cent in July, the largest drop since December 2022, with Sydney and Melbourne leading the declines.
Home values in these capital cities dropped by 1.4 per cent and 1.2 per cent respectively over the month.
Cotality also reported a decline in NSW regional values during July.
However, average city and regional statistics are, in a real sense, irrelevant to property owners or buyers in any particular local property market.
NOTA took the opportunity to chat to prominent local real estate agent Jonny Tighe about recent property price behaviour in the Gloucester area.
According to Mr Tighe, no market likes uncertainty and in the last several months there have been a number of layers of uncertainty affecting the property market, including the oil price shock, budget changes and three interest rate rises, all of which have had an impact on real estate prices after a period of significant growth.
Mr Tighe believes the Gloucester market has held up ‘pretty well’.
“Over the last 24-month period we are probably up 10 to 15 per cent,” Mr Tighe said.
“We have a market that presents value and a great lifestyle.
“The demographic of the buyers from out of town is bundled into two groups being young families that want to buy a home, and people that are retiring to the area.”
“Gloucester as a town is the number one in NSW for cash buyers,” Mr Tighe said.
“We are perfectly isolated with a lot of services such as a hospital, a high school and a police station, but we are just an hour from the coast, three hours to Hornsby, and an hour and a half from Newcastle, now with an international airport.
“We are still seeing buyers who are selling for more and buying for less in our town, and the bit of uncertainty has brought forward their plans to move to the regions, which is really exciting.
“At this stage we have probably flattened out, but we haven’t seen the dramatic falls we’ve seen in other areas.
“Things are tough across the broader NSW market, but in our area we are still seeing buyers, and prices holding up.”
By John WATTS
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