The “steam” has eased in the Limestone Coast’s red hot property market after two years of COVID-19 induced buying, according to an industry expert.

The median price of a Mount Gambier house has risen by almost 37% in the past 12 months to a record $400,000.

Ray White Mt Gambier Principal Tahlia Gabrielli said despite being in the property industry for approximately 10 years she has never seen the market as strong.

“The market has calmed down in the sense that we do not have 15-30 groups coming through every open house and we’re back to groups of 7-12,” she said.

“We are still getting great numbers and multiple offers on properties, so the market is still really good despite what is heard/read in the media.

“I think it’s going to be a much better market for first home buyers to buy in.

“There is not very much stock around and there’s lots of people still looking to do property transactions, including out of town investors which have been really strong over the last couple of years.”

Miss Gabrielli said she has seen the peak of extreme growth, where prices were going up every quarter whereas growth could take years to occur in previous markets.

“We have seen property owners who purchased in 2019 that are experiencing the same amount of growth they would have in 10 years in just 1-2 years,” she said.

“Obviously we cannot run from interest rates because that is something that will affect most people Australia-wide, but I think all that really does is reduce how much people can borrow and afford to spend on a house.

“I think we’re definitely getting a lot of people that were looking to build that want to maybe look at alternative options because it’s just looking too expensive and too unknown with their timeframes and total build cost.

“I do not think we’ll ever have as much growth so quickly for some time until the next property boom, which will happen one day.”