On Tuesday we reported Domain data showing that apartment rents across inner-Melbourne have plunged by between 15% and 30%:
Today Domain reports that investors are growing tired of losing money and are now dumping Melbourne apartments at losses of more than 40%:
- Smaller apartments aimed at international students have suffered the biggest losses, but even non-student apartments have been hammered.
- One owner in North Melbourne recently sold a one-bedroom apartment in Swanston Street for $180,000 – 30% less than the owners paid for it 15 years earlier.
- Real estate agent John Sdregas said “we are seeing this a lot… Vendors can’t find renters. They are distressed, and they’re prepared to sell at a loss. That’s if they can find a buyer… Some apartments are sitting on the market for three to six months”.
- Sdregas expects the price of CBD apartments to continue to fall while Australia’s international borders remain closed. “It could still be another six, 12, 24 months away. You won’t be able to give them away if you’ve got no students to rent them”.
- Real estate agent Annamaria Stella said many of the CBD apartments she has sold recently have sold for “25 to 30 per cent less than the original purchase price”.
- The vacancy rate in Melbourne’s CBD was 11.4% in March.
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