House prices in mining towns are bouncing back, according to new figures from CoreLogic.
House values in East Pilbara, Western Australia, increased by almost 30% in a year, with rental yields sitting at 14.2%.
In Queensland’s Central Highlands region, house prices also surged, increasing more than 30% in the same period.
The price improvement came off a low base and after years of slumping values following the end of the mining boom.
In July 2012, East Pilbara’s median house price was $880,000, but this year it fell to $170,000. Port Hedland recorded a 75% drop in house prices in the same period, with house prices in the coal mining region of Isaac, Queensland falling 80% to an average of $124,000.
However, the falling housing values in these mining towns brought renewed interest from investors, according to CoreLogic analyst Cameron Kusher.
“The price crash was brought on by a number of factors, but the major reasons were that the mining boom ended and commodity prices fell, along with the fact that mining investment saw a sharp slowdown as many of the mines shifted from expansionary phase to production phase. The production phase typically requires far fewer workers than the expansion phase, so in this context fly-in, fly-out workers certainly did contribute,” Kusher said.
Despite the pick-up, prices are unlikely to return to levels seen in 2012, with investors and lenders alike being more careful after the market downturn.
However, mining towns are still attractive to investors in the immediate future.
“As interest rates continue to fall, investors will be attracted to higher-yielding investments and the yields on offer in mining towns, from that perspective, are already quite attractive,” Kusher said.
