By Oliver Lees
Riddells Creek has joined the million dollar club as the median house price cracked $1 million for the first time.
According to Real Estate Institute of Victoria (REIV) data for the three months to December 2021, the suburb recorded a 8.8 per cent quarterly price increase, more than double the average across regional Victoria. (3.7 per cent).
Riddells Creek leaped from a median house price of $933,000 to 1.01 million in the last three months of 2021.
Blackbird & Wren Real Estate director Ben Roberts said he wasn’t surprised to by the figures.
“I think having the coronavirus over the last two years has put in people’s minds what they want in life, and changed their mindset on what’s important,” he said.
“We’re see migration from inner Melbourne. Riddell is still very close to Melbourne, with easy access to the city through Sunbury, it has a lot to offer.”
Mr Roberts said despite buyers being unable to see their homes before buying them, demand for property had never been higher as it has been in the past two years.
“We pretty much sold everything through lockdown sight and unseen,” he said.
“I actually think it puts more urgency into their thinking. Every buyer comes from out of the immediate area, and are typically coming from living on smaller blocks.”
But with it becoming less likely that Victorians will see a return of lockdown measures or the ‘ring of steel’ between metropolitan and regional areas, Mr Roberts said he expects that surge in interest to slow down.
Elsewhere in the shire, New Gisborne recorded a 13.6 per cent increase in the three months to December, and the nearby suburbs of Gisborne, Kyneton and Malmsbury all recorded price increases within the range of four to seven per cent for the same period.
