Ballarat real estate agents might be working harder to sell properties compared with the same time last year, but sales are holding steady following the "urgency" period of the pandemic.
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Over the past three years, house prices in some of Ballarat's suburbs increased by more than 50 per cent.
A median sale price of a house in Ballarat Central is currently $606,000, down $145,000 compared with the same time in 2022, according to the Real Estate Institute of Victoria.
Ballarat real estate agents say houses are still selling steadily across the city and regions, despite interest rate rises and a longer time period it is taking to sell a house.
Ballarat Real Estate senior sales consultant Dominic Morrison said house sales were doing well in some areas while other areas were coming back.
"But I think that the future is looking to pare some of those losses. We had a huge amount of growth in Ballarat and now it's come back by five per cent maybe in some areas but I think we will get it back pretty quickly. With interest rates pausing, the expectation is we will get those losses back pretty quickly," Mr Morrison said.
"Some areas have held and done okay and some areas have probably come off that little bit, but while there might be some that have gone back that 5 per cent, they're still a long way above after that huge amount of growth. Some places saw 40 to 50 per cent of growth over a couple of years so in the grand scheme they haven't come back too much."
Mr Morrison said the number of houses listed for sale was at a normal figure.
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"There was always a fear that if interest rates go higher there would be a huge amount of stock and prices would come back a lot - that hasn't eventuated. The stock levels are pretty normal. Some economists forecasted huge declines but we haven't seen that and the stock levels being steady not seeing that massive drop in price," he said.
Mr Morrison said personally, he had sold the same amount of houses compared with the same time in 2022.
"I had eight sales last week and I still have another 12 properties under contract so personally my sales are the same as last year, it's just been harder work to maintain that level but we have worked hard at it," he said.
"We are coming off a brilliant year so it's probably been harder work than last year but the numbers are the same."
Buxton Ballarat director Mark Nunn said price growth had definitely slowed across Ballarat but house sales were steady.
"Sales are pretty steady at the moment. Houses are taking longer to sell, on average the days on market have probably blown out by an extra three to four weeks than what it was 12 months ago," Mr Nunn said.
"That's probably been the biggest shift. It's not whether the house will or won't sell. The houses are selling but the time on market has blown out a bit. That's probably the biggest difference."
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Houses listed for sale within a 15 kilometre radius of Ballarat are selling well, according to PRD Ballarat lifestyle sales consultant and auctioneer Chris Leonard.
He said the urgency for buyers to purchase their new home, experienced during the pandemic, had disappeared.
"There is more choice on the market which means there is no urgency amongst buyers. Urgency has gone out of it 12 months ago when they were worried about missing out, now they don't want to pay too much with a purchase price," Mr Leonard said.
"There seems to be a lot of activity on the west side of Ballarat, including Beaufort, Skipton, Linton, Scarsdale and Smythesdale."
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