Is now the right time to buy land in Monument?

After a tumultuous period for housing and land markets, experts are now starting to come out in force with an optimistic outlook and a largely consistent message – that now might be the time to buy in outer Melbourne.

RMIT property expert Chris Eves believes it is a “prime time for first home buyers in Melbourne to take advantage of soft market and less competition”.

Eves also believes now is the time :“When the market turns it turns very, very quickly, and people tend to get caught out waiting for the bottom of the market”.

CoreLogic figures show that residential housing prices in Melbourne have seen a historic 10.3 per cent decrease from their November 2017 peak.

Accordingly, the median land prices across 7 key local government areas (such as Melton and Hume) dropped by 2.7 per cent in the March quarter of 2017 (Oliver Hume Quarterly Insights Report).

Despite how these numbers sound, it is far from doom and gloom in the housing market for Melbourne and its outer suburbs.

Such large falls have meant that Melbourne’s housing market has balanced out and is at its most affordable in a long time.

For example: In Melbourne’s west in the Melton Local Government area (Rockbank and Plumpton) the median land price sits at $315,000 (Red23).

It is no wonder, as Melton is clearly a rapidly expanding metropolitan area, seeing population growth of around 15% in the last 2 years.

But is population growth and price increases in land in the Melton region enough to say that housing demand and prices will continue to rise?

Well it seems experts are saying that population is just one of the driving forces in the market.

Firstly, CitiResearch believes the recent cuts by the RBA (and the expected further cuts) will be passed on by the banks, bringing more people in to the housing market all over Victoria.

Additionally, APRA’s recent proposal to remove the minimum 7 per cent serviceability rate on new loan applications will mean loosened lending criteria enabling more people to return to the housing and land market.

Citi’s economist Josh Williamson believes the continuation of negative gearing and the federal government’s new first home buyer’s scheme will get house and land prices rising again and investors pushing demand.

As a result, the experts believe now is the time to get in to the housing and land market before it starts rising again.

Williamson forecasts that on year growth for Australian housing in December 2020 will see a rise of 3%.

The experts are pointing to the fact housing prices in Melbourne are bottoming out right now and that now is the time to buy. With areas in Melbourne like the Melton region with such low land prices and high population growth, here might be the place to start.