This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
REGIONAL Australia is still seeing growth in dwelling values and rents, having reached record highs over the last three months.
According to CoreLogic’s Regional Market Update, dwelling values in Regional Australia were up 2.1% in the three months to April, representing the fastest quarterly growth in nearly two years and outpacing capital city growth of 1.7% in the same period.
“After falling -5.8% between May 2022 and January 2023, regional home values have seen a slower recovery compared to capital city values but have now regained the losses from the downturn to reach a new record high,” said Kaytlin Ezzy, economist at CoreLogic Australia.
19 markets out of Australia’s 50 largest non-capital Significant Urban Areas (SUAs) are currently sitting at a record high.
With Western Australia hosting many of the best performing markets on its coastline, including Geraldton where home values were up 8.8% over the last three months.
Geraldton was followed by Busselton at 7.7% and Bunbury at 6.4%, with Bunbury also seeing the greatest annual growth of 20.7% and the fastest selling time at 14 days.
Four of the top 10 were based in Queensland, with one in NSW, South Australia and Tasmania.
“The diversity in economic activity across these parts of regional WA and Queensland including agriculture, tourism, ports and mining would be contributing to the strength of these markets, along with their higher levels of interstate migration, relative affordability and low supply levels,” added Ezzy.
Meanwhile the worst performing regional areas were in Victoria and NSW, with Ballarat and Port Macquarie seeing 2.0% declines over the quarter. Ballarat also saw the weakest annual change, with a 4.2% decline.
NSW also saw some of the worst selling conditions of the regional markets, with Batemans Bay offering the highest vendor discounts at 6.5%, while Bowral Mittagong recorded the highest median time on market at 75 days.
Rental rates also continued to climb in Regional Australia, with rents up 6.3% over the 12 months to April, up from 4.9% in the year to January.
For caparison, the combined capital cities saw rental growth ease over the same period from 9.6% to 9.4%.
Batemans Bay saw the largest quarterly increase in rents with a bump of 6.0%, after recording declines over 2023.
Bunbury followed with 4.7% growth, ahead of the Sunshine Coast where rents were up 4.4.
Annually, Bunbury saw the largest rental growth, up 16.4%. While Kalgoorlie – Boulder had the highest gross rental yield at 9.4%.
Burnie – Somerset in Tasmania was the most affordable rental market at $419/week, while the Gold Coast – Tweed Heads border region was the most expensive at $827/week.
Only Bomaderry, Maryborough and St-Georges Basin – Sanctuary Point recorded quarterly declines in rental values of 0.3%, 0.2% and 0.1% respectively.
“Housing affordability has continued to deteriorate through the start of 2024 for tenants and prospective home buyers alike. The outlook for regional housing markets will heavily depend on demographic trends, housing supply, localised economic drivers and the outlook for interest rates,” said Ezzy.
