Regional House Prices Outperform Capital Cities

Investors would be wise to look to regional towns for new homes according to new research, despite record house price growth in metropolitan areas over the last quarter.

House prices across Australia grew by more 4 per cent over the last quarter, marking the biggest increase since 2009 according to Corelogic.

Sydney recorded an increase 6.2 per cent, Melbourne 6.1 per cent, Hobart had a 3.4 per cent, Brisbane 2.4 per cent, Canberra 2.3 percent and Adelaide 1.4 per cent.

However, regional locations performed significantly better over the last three years than Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

According to new research from property market research firm Propertyology, the current market could be compared to the growth seen following the 2008 GFC when the RBA made cuts and the federal government gave incentives for new buyers.

“The strong, and largely across-the-board, rebound in Australian real estate prices from the 2009-10 stimulus is likely to be repeated in 2020,” Propertyology head of research Simon Pressley said.

“However, the smart decision-makers of today will be looking beyond 2020 and trying to figure out which Australian property markets have the best potential post-stimulus.”

The researcher said "wannabe investors" who purchased in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane three years ago would likely be disappointed in their results with median house prices only increasing by 2.4 per cent, 12.8 per cent and 8.3 per cent respectively over the period.

“Across all of Australia’s states and territories, there are eight capital cities plus an additional 178 towns and cities which each have a population of 10,000 people or more,” Pressley said.

“The official best-performed market was Glenorchy (40 per cent), while some other absolute standouts include Bass Coast (37 per cent), Macedon Ranges (35 per cent), Snowy Monaro (34 per cent), Baw Baw (30 per cent) and Geelong (29 per cent).

“Orange (23 per cent), Launceston (22 per cent) and Burnie (21 per cent) also did very well over the last three years and I think still have plenty of strong miles left in their legs, too.”

Propertyology also found Byron Bay, Coffs Harbour and Griffith (all 19 per cent), Wangaratta and Mildura (16 per cent), Ballarat, Bathurst, Latrobe, Campaspe, Newcastle, Maitland, Sunshine Coast, Lismore and many more noncapital city locations all performed "significantly" better over the last three years than Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.