PHOTO: Kirby Kieper on the block of land she is trying to sell. Photo: Greg Briggs
Blocks of residential land in Melbourne’s outer suburbs where new houses could be built are set to keep sitting empty into next year even amid the city’s housing affordability woes.
Some buyers who have already paid a 10 per cent deposit for land are now struggling to get finance to settle their purchase and are desperate to sell to someone else, with their land remaining vacant in the meantime.
Changes in bank lending criteria, or drops in land values below the original contract price as the housing market weakened, have made it harder for buyers to arrange loans, meaning they face losing tens of thousands of dollars in deposits if they forfeit the sale.
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