Australia's regional housing markets struggled to stay afloat during the June quarter this year as they witnessed declines in sales activity, according to the latest CoreLogic Quarterly Regional Market Update.
Victoria's Geelong and Latrobe-Gippsland regions recorded the biggest falls in overall activity, with property sales hitting annual decreases of 23% and 21%, respectively.
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The Illawarra region of New South Wales followed closely, recording a 20% drop in sales volumes over the past 12 months.
Units in Lake Macquarie and Latrobe-Gippsland experienced the most prominent declines in sales volumes, down by as much as 32%.
Across the regions, houses remained on the market for between 56 days in Geelong to 109 days in Wide Bay. For units, this ranged from 61 days in Geelong to 136 days in Bunbury.
Dwelling values fell in 10 out of 11 regions tracked by CoreLogic. Bucking the trend is Queensland's Wide Bay, which reported an increase in house and unit prices of 2% and 4.9%, respectively.
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"Discounting is becoming more common in some areas as properties remain on the market for longer periods. Many sellers are realising they need to be flexible to achieve their sale," said CoreLogic research analyst Cameron Kusher.
Townsville recorded the highest rate of discounts. Vendors offer as much as a 9.9% discount for both houses and units. Latrobe-Gippsland witnessed the smallest vendor discounts at 5.5% for homes and 5.1% for units.
Below are some of the regional highlights of the report: