REGIONAL towns are experiencing strong price growth on the back of buyers being priced out of the expensive capital city markets.
New research has revealed a lift in transaction levels and median values in some of the more popular regional towns.
CoreLogic RP Data research analyst Cameron Kusher said some of this was driven by buyers looking for a more affordable alternatives to capital city markets.
The latest CoreLogic RP Data regional report revealed the Illawarra region in New South Wales had been a stand out performer in the past year.
“That is probably largely being driven by what is happening in Sydney as people are priced out of the Sydney housing market (and are) moving down to that region,’’ Mr Kusher said.
“Possibly there is also some holiday home purchasing that may be starting to take place because people have got so much equity in their property.’’
The Illawarra region recorded the largest annual increase in regional home values, up 16.6 per cent for houses and 14.4 per cent for units.
Townsville in Queensland and Bunbury in Western Australia, were the only regions to see values for both houses and units fall over the year to December 2015.
The Richmond-Tweed region had the biggest increase in transaction activity, with dwelling sales up 11.2 per cent.
Mr Kusher said across New South Wales the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie region also experienced a lift in home values.
In Queensland’s five regions the Gold Coast and Wide Bay were the only ones to experience a lift in transaction numbers last year.
Townsville experienced the biggest drop in transaction numbers, followed by the Sunshine Coast and Cairns.
The Queensland region to experience the biggest uplift in values was the Gold Coast where home values rose 6.9 per cent and units by 5 per cent.
In Victoria, sales numbers increased in Geelong and the Latrobe-Gippsland region. Values increased in both regions as well with Geelong houses up by 6.2 per cent and Latrobe Gippsland up by 3 per cent.
Unit markets in both regions also rose by 1.5 per cent and 1.2 per cent respectively.
Bunbury region in Western Australia did not perform well during the year. Its values fell by 3.5 per cent for houses and 1.4 per cent for units.
Mr Kusher believed the growth trend would continue in the Illawarra region but may not be as strong this year.
“But I still think there will be more interest in that market and Newcastle and Lake Macquarie as well.
“We are seeing it (growth in values) elsewhere, obviously the Gold and Sunshine Coast but not anywhere to the same magnitude and that again is probably due to fact that the Brisbane housing market has not been anywhere near as strong in terms of value growth as in Sydney and even Geelong you are seeing it a little bit in that market as well.
Mr Kusher said Townsville might start to improve in the coming year on the back of the tourism sector.
“But I honestly think in Queensland probably Cairns, Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast are more likely to benefit than Townsville at this point in time.’’
Original Publish: http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/