There is growing evidence of recovery in the Perth property market, including rising sales activity and a significant uplift in prices in the Top End suburbs.

Our Winter survey of sales activity for The Price Predictor Index has confirmed the strong showing in the two previous quarterly surveys. 

In this survey we have given a positive ranking (rising, plateau or consistency) to 132 suburbs in the Perth metro area. 

It should be remembered that Perth is rising from a low base and that none of its suburbs has sales activity comparable to those in 2012 and early 2013. 

But the momentum in the market is undeniable and it seems only a matter of time before some locations return to the strength of the pre-downturn days.

Confidence that the upturn is sustainable comes from revival in the mining sector and the large numbers of jobs being created. As the WA economy improves, businesses thrive and business people become more confident in their real estate purchases.

This suggests that Perth generally can look forward to a return to price growth in the near future.

Putting all these factors together - more growth markets, fewer Danger markets, more consistent ones and early signs of prices rising - provides evidence of a return to strength in the Perth market.

View the report here

A recent mainstream media article had the headline "National Top 3 Locations for Price Growth in Australia". All three locations had allegedly had median price growth of around 34%-however investigation showed that of these locations had very few sales in the previous 12 months. In our view median prices in locations with fewer than 30 annual sales are statistically meaningless, and headlines of this nature are at best careless reporting and at worst actively misleading.

The LGA of Baw Baw is one of Australia's leading population growth areas and real estate in towns like Warragul and Drouin is growing strongly.

View the location report here

Long-suffering investors with properties in resources-related locations can look forward to better things.

The latest research data shows that many of these towns are showing improvement in their property markets, with vacancies down, sales activity up and, in some cases, the first signs of a return to price growth.

The renaissance sweeping through the Port Adelaide Enfield district is about to smother its former reputation as the “Valley of Death”.

Defence Force contracts totalling $89 billion and scheduled to last for over 40 years, together with government initiatives, are set to launch Port Adelaide into a new stratosphere.

The Osborne Naval Shipyard is undergoing a $535 million upgrade to accommodate the building of 40 new Defence craft; 500 public servants are being moved into the precinct; and a new rail spur will link the Port’s commercial centre and the Dock One residential precinct to the Adelaide CBD.

These and several smaller projects are creating much-needed jobs, turning historic Port Adelaide into a thriving residential, commercial and tourist destination.

This report includes the suburbs of Blair Athol, Enfield, Rosewater and Valley View.  

View the location report here

   

The City of Stirling is not only leading a recovery in the Perth property market but it's our National Growth Star in the new Winter Edition of The Price Predictor Index, because it has more growth suburbs than any other LGA in the nation.

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Affordability and lifestyle are continuing to drive growth in Melbourne's outer ring suburbs and commutable regional areas of Victoria.

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The affordability issue starts with the high price of residential land in our major cities.

Prices continue to rise, even though sales volumes have fallen, because there is a shortage of land relative to demand and because the various levels of government inflict delays, taxes and other imposts on the industry that creates land and new dwellings.

As a result, lots sizes continue to reduce but prices overall continue to rise.

One of the early signals of an impending growth cycle in a property market is a rise in prices in the Top End suburbs. Recent growth cycles in Sydney and Melbourne both started with uplift in the millionaire suburbs - and rippled out from there, to the middle-ring & then outer-ring suburbs. We expect improved price performance in both Adelaide and Perth - Top End markets in both cities have shown strong price growth in the past 12 months.

The smaller capital cities and some of our regional areas are now the strongest markets in Australia - as revealed by the new quarterly edition of The Price Predictor Index (one of our two most popular reports).

View the report here