Better news from the West, with Albany on top

Better news from the West, with Albany on top

Posted on Friday, August 07 2015 at 12:16 PM

The area of Albany has emerged as the best performing regional centre for West Australian property over the last financial year, according to the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia (REIWA).

Data released this week by REIWA shows the Albany Urban Area had 5.3 per
cent growth in median house price over the last year, lifting it to $389,750.

The regional city saw 456 house sales, 42 unit sales and 200 land sales
over the last year.

Better performing suburbs included Bayonet Head, up 8.8 per cent to a
median of $397,000, Mount Melville, up 5 per cent to $380,000 and Spencer Park,
up 4.9 per cent to $350,000.

The suburb with the greatest number of house sales was Yakamia, where 52
properties changed hands at a median price of $388,750, but which was a drop of
almost 6 per cent in price on the previous year.

REIWA’s branch chairman for Albany, Barry Panizza, says that while any
growth is good it must be seen in context.

“The lift in median price over the last year really only brings us back
to where we were five years ago because the market has been weak for that long,”
he says.

“However, it’s encouraging to think that we might now be returning to a
better position of forward growth and it gives buyers and sellers a bit more
confidence.

“Turnover, however, was down 10 per cent on last year, which could be
attributed to fewer properties on the market and this also helped with price
growth.”

Panizza believes the growth should hold as the available land in some
areas is being taken up quickly with no new subdivisions on the horizon in some
residential suburbs.  

“I also think there may have been some renewed interest in Albany
following the hugely attended ANZAC commemorations over the last 12 months.
Thousands of people from all over Australia got to see and experience Albany
last October and again in April this year, and it wouldn’t surprise me if that
resulted in a few people relocating here or acquiring an investment holiday
home for the future,” he says. 

The second best performing regional centre was the Busselton Urban Area,
which experienced 3.4 per cent growth over the financial year, following on
from positive growth in previous years. Its best performing suburb was Abbey
with a median price of $625,000, up by 15.7 per cent over the year and
averaging almost 4 per cent growth each year over the last five years.

In third place was Goldfields/Esperance with 3.1 per cent growth,
although the suburb of Esperance itself did well with 4.3 per cent growth based
on 25 sales and a median price of $365.000.

The suburb of Kalgoorlie enjoyed 7.6 per cent growth to $317,500, while
Piccadilly had very good growth of 20.2 per cent to $375,000.

Several regional centres had zero growth or very modest fluctuations,
such as Mandurah and Bunbury, while many others went backwards.

Hardest hit was the Pilbara region, still suffering from the downturn in
the mining-construction sector.

Karratha dropped by an exceptional 32.3 per cent to a median price of
$440,000. Port Hedland dropped 12 per cent but still had a significant median
price of $880,000, while South Hedland had a modest drop of 4.6 per cent to
$711,000.  

Around the state several smaller towns and villages had some reasonable
stand-alone results, including Pinjarra with 19 per cent growth to $362,500,
Harvey up 11 per cent to $310,000, Margaret River up 8.1 per cent to $465,000,
Merredin up 10.6 per cent to $177,000, Narrogin up 9.6 per cent to $216,000 and
Wagin up 39.2 per cent to $181,000.

Across the regions as a whole, price growth was just under one per cent,
lifting the country median house price to $383,000. 

 

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