Craigieburn house prices experience top growth

Price growth for two-bedroom houses in Craigieburn has outperformed all but one of Victoria’s most affordable areas.

Figures released by realestate.com.au showed that for suburbs with a median house price of less than $550,000, only Tarneit’s two-bedroom houses experienced greater annual growth than the same properties in Craigieburn.

Craigieburn’s price increase for two-bedrooms was also the third biggest in the sub-$550,000 sector in Australia, with an annual growth of 12 per cent.

With the median price for these homes of $300,000, Ray White Craigieburn agent Daniel Diamantopoulos said that new facilities, affordability and low interest rates were key to the suburb’s popularity.

“We really are in a growth corridor here,” Mr Diamantopoulos said.

“Within the last 20 months we’ve seen a new shopping centre built, better links into the CBD and lots of other new amenities bringing a lot of people to the area.”

Homes prices from $400,000 to $500,000 have attracted the most new interest.

“In that range we see a lot of second and third-home buyers,” Mr Diamantopoulos said.

“That is the market that has increased 10-fold over the past 12 months.”

A four-bedroom home at 3 Ravenwoods Way was inspected by 67 buyers in three weeks.

“That is an outrageous number of people and shows the amount of interest at this level,” Mr Diamantopoulos said.

“We used to be lucky if we got a third of that number through a property.”

YPA Craigieburn director Khaled Khaled agreed new projects in the area were attracting buyers.

“There have been a lot of improvements in recent months,” Mr Khaled said.

“There are also a whole lot of new developments that are attracting a large number of buyers.”

New infrastructure reinforces Craigieburn’s claim as the hub of the north, Mr Khaled said.

“I can picture a time, whether it’s 12 months or 5 years from now, that Craigieburn will be the city of the north.”

The high volume of buyers has caused prices to rise, with heavy bidding at auctions resulting in big prices.

A four-bedroom home at 6 Fletcher Rd sold for $582,000 — $60,000 more than the vendor’s reserve price.

“We’ve sold a lot of houses recently for well above expectations,” Mr Khaled said.

“It shows that people are willing to spend more because they have to secure the property.

“That being said, Craigieburn is still comparatively affordable which only increases the amount of interest.”