This transcript was generated automatically and may contain small errors.
So you want to invest in regional Victoria, but which market is the pick above the rest? Geelong, Ballarat or Bendigo? Three strong regional markets, all with their own pros and cons. In this episode, I'm going to unpack the details in the data comparing these three regional Victorian towns, helping you understand what could be a better choice for strong growth that best fits for your portfolio. The answers might surprise you.
This episode is a must watch before you buy in regional Victoria. I'm Junge Ma, the senior research analyst at InvestorKit, and now let's get into it. Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, they're all being talked about a lot. To me, all these three cities are having great potential, but let's see what data is saying. We'll start from Geelong.
Geelong is the satellite city for Melbourne. The local economy is balanced and resilient. The top five employment industries include healthcare and social assistance, construction, retail trade, education and training, and accommodation and food service. Job market is healthy with an unemployment rate of 4. 6%, in line with Greater Melbourne's or Victoria as a state.
In the house market, median house price now is $680,000, with a variation between suburbs. Some are much higher than this level, while some older suburbs can have median prices below $600,000, such as Corio. Market pressure is increasing clearly. Supply is shrinking. Now inventory level is around three months of stock, with 30% decline from the same time last year.
Days on market is also declining, 18% lower than the same time last year. Annual price growth is relatively low now. On average, it's just 0. 2% for the whole area, but with the shrinking supply relative to demand and increasing market pressure, we would expect a much higher annual growth in the coming year. Rental market conditions are also tightening.
Now the vacancy rate is just 0. 8%. It's been declining since early 2025, and now this declining trend is continuing into 2026. So overall, Geelong's economy is healthy. Market is not moving the fastest now, but pressure is increasing, and we expect its performance to be much better than now in the coming year.
Now Ballarat. Ballarat is around two hours drive west of Melbourne. Local economy is also well-rounded and resilient. The top five employment industries are healthcare and social assistance, education and training, that's the second place for Ballarat, retail trade, construction, and manufacturing. In the house market, median house price is just $550,000.
It's still lower than where it was back in 2022. Supply is shrinking. Inventory once surged to above four or even above five two, three years ago, but now it has declined to 2. 7 months of stock, 55% decline in a year. Days on market is also declining, 18% lower than the same time last year.
Prices have started to grow in 2025 with an annual growth rate of 4. 6%. And in the coming year with the declining days on market, we would expect a much higher annual growth than the current number. In the rental market, supply is also shrinking. The current vacancy rate is 0.
6%, and we're seeing this steady decline trend over 2025 and into 2026, we expect it to become even lower. And then Bendigo. Bendigo is currently the fastest growing among these three. Median price has increased to close to 600,000. Two years ago, Bendigo was supposed to be more affordable than Ballarat, but now it's not the case anymore.
The top five employment industries are healthcare and social assistance, education training, accommodation and food service, retail trade, and construction. Also not heavily reliant on any single industry. Job market is active with a 4. 1% unemployment rate. I might have forgotten to mention Ballarat's unemployment rate, and it's 4.
2%, just in line with Bendigo's. Inventory level in Bendigo is the lowest, currently at 2. 4 months of stock, declined by 50% over the past year, also declining very fast. Days on market, 26% lower than the same time last year. So as we can see, market pressure is increasing, although the difference is not really significant.
Last one year annual growth has already been 8%, and in the coming year with the supply further shrinking, we would expect even higher annual growth for Bendigo. Rental market is high with vacancy rate of 1. 1%. It's not as low as Geelong or Ballarat. One possible reason is that Bendigo started recovering earlier than Geelong and Ballarat.
So more investors in the past year have entered this market and increased the rental stock slightly. So those were all the data points for these three regional Victorian towns. As we saw, they all have a strong economic foundation for housing market growth. Their market pressure is all increasing with a higher price growth expected in the coming year. And in the rental market, all three of them have a low vacancy rate, which would continue to push rents to grow.
And above all, in terms of a growth cycle position, they are actually at very similar positions. They're all in a relatively early phase in their growth cycle. But if we have to rank them, Bendigo is seeing the highest and fastest dropping market pressure and would be expecting the highest growth in the coming year. So in that sense, I would be ranking Bendigo the top among these three. And on the other end, Geelong is seeing the lowest and slowest recovering market pressure.
So in that sense, Geelong would be the third place. But as we always say, markets are always moving. If you're listening to this one year or two years after this, our ranking could be totally different. If you have any questions, anything to discuss, leave your comments below. My name is Junge Ma, the Senior Research Analyst at InvestorKit.
I'll see you next time.
