Figures from the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia (REIWA) show that in the in the 12 months to the end of June, the state’s regional centres had seen median house prices grow by an average of 0.8%.
The median house price across the 12 Western Australian regional centres now sits at $383,000.
The Albany Urban Area was the best performing region of the 12-month period, with it recording 5.3% in its median house price to $389,750.
On a suburb-by-suburb basis, Bayonet Head was the best performer, up 8.8% to a median of $397,000 followed by Mount Melville, up 5% to $380,000 and Spencer Park, up 4.9% to $350,000.
Yakamia was the region’s worst performing suburb with an almost 6% drop to $388,750.
While he isn’t getting carried away with the region’s performance, REIWA branch chairman for Albany Barry Panizza said the news would give confidence for those involved in the Albany market.
“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,” Panizza said.
“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.”
The next best performing region was the Busselton Urban Area, with growth of 3.4% over the year to a median of $460,000.
The best performing suburb in the Busselton region was Abbey, where the median house price rose 15.7% to $625,000.
The Goldfields/Esperance region followed Busselton and experienced growth of 3.1%.
The area was home to the best performing regional suburb over the year, with Picadilly growing by 20.2% to $375,000.
It’s not all positives for the state’s regional areas though, with some still reeling from the slowdown in the resource sector.
Karratha’s median price dropped by 32.3% to sit at $440,000.
Port Hedland dropped 12%, but still had a significant median price of $880,000, while South Hedland had a modest drop of 4.6% to $711,000.
