Regional property price growth outstrips Perth

The latest data from the Real Estate Institute of WA (REIWA) showed positive overall price growth across houses, units and land in regional WA for the three months to March 2016, outperforming the Perth metropolitan area.

REIWA president Hayden Groves said the data showed that while parts of regional WA were still feeling the effects of the slowdown in the mining sector, a number of areas – particularly those south of Perth – were showing signs of strength in a challenging market.

“It’s really pleasing to see that regional WA’s overall median price lifted 1.3 per cent over the quarter, and looking at houses, units and land individually, there was notable growth in all three areas,” he said.

“In particular, units experienced the biggest quarterly growth in median price, lifting six per cent.

“This can mostly be attributed to the Mandurah-Murray region which saw its median unit price improve significantly to $390,000 over the quarter, from $320,000 in the December quarter 2015,” Mr Groves said.

In Mandurah and the Peel region, Ravenswood led the table for largest growth in median house prices in the year to the last quarter, with an increase of 3.9 per cent, followed by Wannanup at 3.8 per cent and Dudley Park at 3.7 per cent.

At a sub-market level, around half of the state’s regions experienced positive median house price growth over the March quarter.

“Bunbury in the state’s South West saw the biggest increase to its quarterly median house price in the March quarter, lifting 5.6 per cent to $395,000,” Mr Groves said.

“Bunbury also saw an improvement in house sales activity over the quarter, with volumes increasing six per cent in the first three months of this year,” Mr Groves said.

Other regional areas to experience positive median house price movement were: