Geelong Wrap Market

Hi Jarrod,

The house prices in Geelong have almost doubled over the last 12 months and the ‘locals’ can’t comprehend the jump in prices (this is from feedback from potential wrapees who’ve said “You’ve got to be joking!” and we haven’t heard back from them). This is especially in the areas of Norlane and Corio. Nth Geelong and Bell park its even harder to find a good wrap property (properly priced for wraps). I’ve been looking for 8 months now. It’s quite frustrating actually. The people I know who’ve done wraps in the area have had wrapees do a runner leaving a ‘trashed’ house resulting in out of pocket money to do it up before trying to find another wrapee. This includes new locks, repairing damaged doors, security doors, walls etc.. It pays to get good leads, but if the locals are in shock due to price jumps, finding someone who won’t do a runner might be a challange.
Perhaps buy and hold might be a better option for the moment until the locals have time to catch up with the changes in capital growth. You might also benefit from the delay in wrapping due to the growth occuring there. I’m also a newbie and am still learning the ropes.

I was interested in wraps in the Latrobe Valley, but due to the high number of wrapers in the area, the house prices have gone up and everyone knows about wraps.

The agents in the area (both in Geelong and the Latrobe Valley) are quite funny! As what happened in Melbourne, in areas like Bentleigh, Ormond, Caulfield, St Kilda etc due to the glut of people buying houses at or way above asking price (especially at auction) some of the agents became sluggish and were often quite blaisee (spelt wrong oops)when asking them about the property. I went to an auction in Bentleigh East and the auctioneer said ‘ If you want the property I suggest you start bidding, because I’m not going to pull bids from the air and I’d rather pass the house in then have to stand here and pull teeth. If your in, make a bid, if not I’ll pass it in.’ The house got passed in. (This guy will never be my auctioneer!!!) Anyway after the glut in the market in this area, there are heaps of ‘For Lease’ signs everywhere..

On the grapevine I’ve heard that some are finding it very difficult to onsell. I am sure there is a positive side to wrapping in Geelong.
If you want to drop me an email, I could let you know some more.

Does anyone have any other feedback about Geelong or whether I’m wrong about the Latrobe Valley? Any other suggestions?

Cheers and Good Luck

Soosh []

It’s all our imperfections that make us perfect!

Edited by – [email protected] on 07/10/2002 3:01:22 PM