Boom-to-bust market recovers lost ground in 2018
It's been a tough few years for the Western Australia market, but some areas have been flagged for capital growth opportunities as the market continues to recover from its post-mining boom dive.
Although a bit soft, Western Australia has been performing better than the last couple of years, according to LJ Hooker’s head of research Mathew Tiller.
While there is decline, Mr Tiller said the current market is seeing prices begin to stabilise, and even see increases in some areas.
“The inner city markets and areas and the city fringes around Perth has been performing quite well over the past year. Overall, the market overall in WA's prices climbed about 3 per cent,” he said.
“If you have a look at some of those inner cities, the more popular areas in the city fringe area, they’ve actually performed okay, so I will say suburbs like around Midland and Claremont they’ve done okay.
“Some of those lifestyle areas down around Margaret River, they actually didn’t see a decline as much as the broader market in Perth.”
Over the last 12 months, Mr Miller said the top growing suburb in WA was Northbridge units with a rise in median price of 15.9 per cent to $475,000. This was followed by East Perth units rising 15.8 per cent to $531,475 and then Doubleview units with a rise of 15.5 per cent to $473,750.
While Mr Tiller said it was difficult to make an accurate prediction about what 2019 holds for with the impending federal election in May, he was optimistic about the WA market in the new year.
“In WA specifically, I think it will be a little bit of a better year next year than this year as long as national trends don’t weigh too much on the states,” he said.
“There’s been a bit more employment growth. There’s been a bit more investment in the mine and resource sector, which the WA is heavily reliant on, so the economy is slowly improving over there, which again supports the housing market over there.
“While I don’t think there’s going to be any substantial growth, the market over there is going to be under better fortune and either will remain steady or slightly improve on the new year.”
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