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Six of the 12 centres across regional Western Australia experienced positive median house price growth in the December quarter 2016.
REIWA president Hayden Groves says the strong showing is an “optimistic” sign for the regions.
Mr Groves said the boost had a positive effect on regional WA’s overall annual median house price, with preliminary Landgate data showing prices lifted 1.4 per cent over the quarter to $355,000.
Northam was the best performing region, increasing 18.6 per cent in the quarter.
Busselton urban area and Esperance urban area also performed well, lifting 12.1 and 7.1 per cent respectively.
However, prices softened in Broome and Port Hedland.
Sales
At the same time, sales volumes were down across regional WA, with preliminary Landgate data showing 1,264 transactions.
Mr Groves said this figure is expected to lift to around 1,500 once all sales have settled.
“Albany and Broome were the strongest performers for sales activity over the quarter, bucking the trend to record stable volume levels,” he said.
"Once all sales have settled for the quarter, we expect Broome urban area’s revised sales figure to have recorded an increase.”
The bulk of the sales were in the $150,000 to $360,000 range.
“In Bunbury and Albany, while the majority of transactions were below $500,000, both regional centres saw an increase in activity in the higher end of the market, which has contributed to the quarterly median house price for both areas lifting,” Mr Groves said.
Days on market, discounting
On average, it was two days faster to sell a property in regional WA in the December quarter than it was in the September quarter.
Albany and Bunbury recorded the most improvement, at 17 and 10 days fewer respectively.
Other regional centres to record an improvement in average selling days over the quarter were Northam, Esperance urban area, Mandurah/Murray and Geraldton/Greenough.
The Karratha urban area was unchanged from the September quarter.
Discounting over the quarter remained stable at 63.89 per cent.
“We did, however, see a decline in the amount sellers were needing to reduce their asking price by, which would have been a contributing factor to regional WA’s overall median increasing in the December quarter,” Mr Groves said.
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