Regional growth in Busselton

Regional growth in Busselton

Posted on Friday, November 07 2014 at 11:52 AM

Looking for the right place to buy regional? It seems Busselton is Western Australia’s best performing property market for the past year.

The Busselton
urban area saw growth of 5.9 per cent in the year to September 2014 compared to
the 12 months to September 2013.

The local
market is described as robust but price sensitive according to the Real Estate
Institute of Western Australia’s chairman of the Busselton branch, Joe White.
He says Busselton’s no longer seen as just a ‘seaside holiday town’ as it’s
experiencing growth with young families and FIFO workers choosing to stay.

“The
volumes and consistency of non-seasonal sales show the market is alive and
building activity is high as the population grows. It’s cheaper to build a new
home here than in Perth but the infrastructure gets better all the time, with
schools and shops all within proximity to a great beachfront with a village
atmosphere,” he says.

The
Forest Highway means Perth is now half an hour closer.

“And
people don’t mind the two-and-a-half hour drive up to the city on occasions for
cultural or sporting events because it’s a small price to pay to enjoy
Busselton’s coastal lifestyle,” White says.

Mandurah was the second best performer for the region with growth
of 3.8 per cent on the previous year and a median house price of $405,000.

Third
place was Albany with 3.6 per
cent growth and a median house price of $373,000.

The
only other regional centres that saw growth year-on-year were Bunbury with 2.7 per cent and Kalgoorlie-Boulder with a modest 0.4
per cent. Median prices for these two regional areas came in at $380,000 and
$341,000 respectively.

Karratha suffered the biggest disappointment, dropping 12.2 per
cent, which pulled its median price to $630,000. REIWA’s Karratha branch chairman,
Richard Naulls, says the town had seen a reduction in sale prices of about 40
per cent since January 2012.

“This
continued for the first six months of 2014 but we have seen a stabilisation in
the market since July this year, which the September quarter figures support.
More importantly, sales numbers were increasing for the quarter and continued
in October,” Naulls says.

Carnarvon saw zero growth, with median house prices remaining at
$300,000.

Geraldton/Greenough dropped back 0.7 per cent to $380,000, while
Northam dipped 2.6 per cent to $261,000 and Esperance fell 3.4 per cent to $350,000.

Port Hedland dropped by 7.6 per cent, pulling its median down to
$800,000.

Broome saw a 9.6 per cent retraction in price to $590,000.

In
comparison with regional areas, metropolitan Perth experienced growth of six
per cent for the same time period.

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