Busselton, Port Hedland named biggest winners among regional WA markets

Busselton saw the biggest price growth during the latest quarter, recording a 5.5 per cent increase in the median house sale price to $580,000. 

“The impressive price growth recorded in the Busselton regional centre during the quarter can largely be attributed to a shortage of available housing in the region,” he said.

The latest data from the state’s real estate body showed that house listings in the Busselton regional centre declined by over 21 per cent on a monthly basis and by a staggering 42 per cent over the past year.

“With less stock available, this has turned the heat up amongst buyers, forcing them to be more competitive when putting an offer on a property and pushing up the regional centre’s median price,” Mr White explained.

The REIWA executive added that Busselton’s price growth was underpinned by strong demand coming from interstate buyers, as well as interest from Perth. 

“Now that there are direct flights available from Melbourne to the Busselton Margaret River Airport, it will be interesting to observe what impact this has on house prices in the region moving forward,” Mr White added. 

Other regional centres to record strong increases in median house prices during the quarter were Port Hedland (up 3.9 per cent), Geraldton (up 3.6 per cent) and Kalgoorlie (up 3.1 per cent).

Esperance was the only regional centre that did not tally a boost in median house sale price over the quarter, with its median house price remaining stable at $390,000.

Mr White said the performance of regional centres during the period shows how regional living has become more accessible than ever for Australians due to employers and employees increasingly shifting to a work-from-home flexible business model.

“This has opened the door for people who previously needed to remain in the city for work, to look outside of the metro area to the growing opportunity in the regions,”  he surmised. 

Port Hedland records biggest annual price growth

On an annual basis, Port Hedland recorded the biggest jump in the median house price with a 40.6 per cent gain to $457,000.

Mr White stated there was a mix of factors driving Port Hedland’s strong price growth.

He highlighted that of the key drivers of growth in the regional centre was Pilbara’s thriving commodity market, particularly the shift in the mindset of mining companies towards favouring a more localised workforce.

Another significant contributor was the success of the Voluntary Buy-Back Scheme in Port Hedland’s west end that the West Australian government agreed to back in June 2020.

“The scheme gives eligible residential property owners the opportunity to sell their property for a government-guaranteed premium market price,” Mr White said.

“With more than 100 properties sold through the Voluntary Buy-Back Scheme in 2021 alone, this has had, and will continue to have, an impact on median house price growth in the Port Hedland regional centre.”

Other regional centres to record notable annual growth in median house sale price were Geraldton (up 21 per cent), Broome (up 17.5 per cent) and Busselton (up 12.6 per cent).