Stockland’s Selandra Rise tops Melbourne’s house-and-land sales but fewer sales forecast: Colliers

Stockland’s Selandra Rise residential community in Melbourne's south-east has been one of the most successful recent house-and-land projects in Melbourne, according to the latest Melbourne communities report from Colliers International.

The report, released this week, notes that Selandra Rise (pictured below) in Clyde North managed around 150 sales over the second half of 2011.

However, the overall outlook is for lower steady growth in residential land sales over the next few years, with a combination of reduced population growth, declining consumer sentiment and changes to government incentives having already led to a correction in demand for land in Melbourne’s residential communities.

"Lack of demand, a cautious consumer outlook and uncertainty in funding on the developer and purchaser side is likely to continue in the next 16 months,” says  Paul Wheate, Colliers International director for valuations.

Over the second half of 2011 residential lot sales in Melbourne’s fringe growth suburbs continued to decline falling by 21%.

Colliers International records less than 2,000 lots sales in the second half of 2011 compared with more than 3,500 in the same period two years ago.

Median land prices fell by 9% over the six-month period, from $215,000 to $205,000, but recorded an increase of 7% year-on-year.

New home approvals are down to below 6,000 across the city for the first six months of the year, compared with nearly 14,000 in 2011 and close to 16,000 in 2010.

Wheate says that after a period of high demand and limited supply, the land market was returning to more sustainable long-term averages in terms of sales rates, driven largely by the increased supply of available stock and declining purchaser sentiment.

“After the highs of 2009 and 2010 we became used to unsustainable levels of activity,” he says.

“With the declines in demand that we are seeing, courtesy of reduced building approval figures, population growth, and negative consumer sentiment during 2012, we anticipate that vacant lot and house sales will remain at current levels for the short to medium term.“