First-time buyers priced out of rural homes – conveyancer

FIRST-TIME buyers are being priced out of rural homes, according to a conveyancer who specialised in helping them on the ladder.

Luke Seve began focusing on giving young families in and around Dubbo a leg up a decade ago when prices were around $480,000.

Only those working in the mining sector stand a chance of getting a foothold in the market now that the price of starter homes has shot up to more than $700,000 on average, he says.

Luke was speaking as CoreLogic reported that demand for rural living remained higher than pre-COVID levels.

CoreLogic economist Kaytlin Ezzy said: “We’re almost five years on from the onset of COVID-19 and it appears that remote and hybrid working arrangements are here to stay.

“With more people able to prioritise lifestyle over job location, the flow of internal migrants to regional markets has settled higher than the levels seen pre-COVID, helping to support housing demand.”

Recounting his own experience, Luke told Australian Conveyancer that the landscape has completely changed.

“When I transitioned from Bourke to Dubbo in 2014 – and pretty much from 2015 onwards – I took an interest in first time buyers,” he said.

“I advocated that I was particularly interested in assisting first time buyers because I know that it can be obviously daunting.

“From then until now the landscape has completely changed.

“Back then, first time buyers were able to get into the market when the average sale price was about $480,000 in 2015, here in Dubbo.

“That remained a fairly constant up to around 2020 – but now we’re looking at you know $700,000 plus.

“That’s for the for the same property. So, home buyers have gone off the radar unless they’re unless they’re working in the mines.

“First-time buyers are few and far between.

“They’re usually working in the mines – as they’re the only first-time buyers who are serviceable.

“And they come from Cobar or Mudgee, which are mining towns.”

As a result, according to Luke who founded and runs Seve Conveyancing there has been a big decline in the amount and turnover of new homes.

“The cost of building in general has gone up substantially, coupled with the increase in the price of a vacant parcel of land.

“It’s really put a dent on things in general.

“There’s a lot of brand-new brand homes sitting on the market at the moment here in Dubbo.

“And the buyers are typically Sydney investors.

“So the investment that I do see is from outside of Dubbo.

“When I get calls, they from Sydney with someone telling me they’re looking at expanding their portfolio.”

Look out for a full profile on Luke and life as a rural conveyancer in our first quarterly magazine of 2025, out next month.