The most affordable Melbourne suburbs for first-home buyers

The fastest-selling homes in Melbourne are situated in the outer suburbs thanks to high demand from first-home buyers, according to the Domain Group.

Of the 10 suburbs where houses spent the shortest time on the market in 2017, seven had medians than were less than the $600,000 threshold for first-home buyer stamp duty concessions, according to the Domain Group’s data on private sales.

Rowville, situated 27km south-east of the CBD, was the fastest-selling suburb for houses and also had the highest median in the top 10 ($856,500)—substantially less than Melbourne’s median of $903,859.

On average, it took just 22 days for a house in Rowville to sell. Anthony Johnson, director of Rowville-based Barry Plant, said many have sold after just one day.

“Rowville tends to have the right price point for a lot more buyers than one or two suburbs closer in,” Johnson told the Domain Group. “It’s a family friendly suburb with a mixture of properties and good accessibility.”

Frankston North, with a median house price of $470,000, landed at second place with an average on-market time of 23 days, followed by Carrum Downs (median house price of $525,000), Cranbourne West ($511,000), Ferntree Gully ($740,000), and Hampton Park ($500,000).

Greville Pabst, property expert and executive chair of WBP Group, said lower-priced homes have always sold more quickly. Stamp duty concessions for first-home buyers made this particularly true last year and in the first part of this year.

“The strongest sector of our buyer market is currently the first-home buyers,” Pabst told the Domain Group. “It’s causing demand to flow into those lower-value suburbs.”

Also read: Home prices continue to drop, thanks to Melbourne

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