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COVID-19 has brought many shifts to the Mornington Peninsula and surrounding areas, but this agent knows that the region will take the changes in stride.
When Amanda Haimona began working as a real estate agent in Mount Martha and the Mornington Peninsula 15 years ago, the market was dominated by holiday home seekers. All that soon changed for the attractive beachside location, with its easy distance to Melbourne luring full-time residents to the area. Soon, permanent home buyers made up the bulk of her sales.
But changes in Australians’ lifestyle choices driven by the COVID-19 pandemic have slowed that trend, according to Ms Haimona, who has owned Bonaccorde Property Services in Mount Martha for the last 11 years.
“There are a lot of holiday home buyers coming back into the market,” she said. “What I’ve been seeing, and it is due to COVID and the fact that interstate and international travel has been off the cards for some time, is that those with money have been able to purchase and they’ve been buying holiday homes,” she noted.
“Some of those people possibly will look to move into them permanently at some point,” she anticipated. “So it may be that they’re holiday homes now, but the owners end up seeking a different purpose from them down the track.”
That’s not to say that demand for permanent residences has receded – Ms Haimona said that still makes up the majority of her business – but rather, the desire for holiday homes has added to an already surging property market.
“We’ve had enormous growth, which is good or bad, depending on what side of the fence you’re sitting.” Noting that Mornington Peninsula market values have grown by 30 per cent in the last 12 months, Ms Haimona said that homeowners’ joy at property value increases had been equalled by the terror new buyers are feeling watching the market skyrocket while facing increasing competition.
For Ms Haimona, that’s added some hand-holding to the process of working with buyers, and she’s been doing what she can to arm people with the information and reassurance they need to compete. It’s just one way she’s had to be nimble and adjust to a rapidly shifting landscape.
“We’ve been facing constant change down here at the moment, depending on our shutdowns and lockdowns and the rulings around whether we can work or not work,” she said. “But what we’ve learned from last year is when we have a longer lockdown, there’s going to be a huge surge in demand coming out of the restrictions.”
Bolstered by the information she’s gathered from being on the ground, Ms Haimona is making plans for the period ahead. “So there’s a pattern now, and it gives us confidence that moving forward, obviously the property market always bounces back quickly after lockdowns, and the prices increase.”
She doesn’t foresee the appeal of the Mornington Peninsula region abating once pandemic disruptions have eased. If anything, the isolation that many have faced during extended lockdowns has only increased the attractiveness of small communities like hers.
“I think one of the biggest things to come out of this period is the importance of genuine connection and feeling cared for,” she said.
Those searching for a sense of community will fit right in, according to Ms Haimona. “We are a really lovely community here, and we support businesses and individuals – it’s very friendly.”
While she emphasises that the area’s amenities have improved in leaps and bounds over the years – “although a coastal town, we’ve got fantastic infrastructure, we’ve got our own private schools and lots of great facilities” – she also knows the small-town feel that many are seeking from the region isn’t going anywhere.
“It is still a bit old school because of the size, so for people that wish to live in a very safe area where it’s friendly, you feel connected, then this is a beautiful area where you’ll always bump into somebody you know.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Juliet Helmke
Based in Sydney, Juliet Helmke has a broad range of reporting and editorial experience across the areas of business, technology, entertainment and the arts. She was formerly Senior Editor at The New York Observer.
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