WA area picked for growth
Western Australia’s City of Rockingham has been identified for growth over 2013 based on its affordability, diverse economy and good transportation links by a number of property experts.
“While experts are divided as to WA’s potential for property growth moving forward, my pick here is most definitely Rockingham,” Destiny Financial's Margaret Lomas told Smart Property Investment.
To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in.
Create free account to get unlimited news articles and more!
In Smart Property Investment’s Fast 50 report, two experts picked the precinct for growth, including hotspotting.com.au’s Terry Ryder.
Although much of the speculation on Western Australia’s capital growth is centred upon the continued mining boom, according to Ms Lomas, Rockingham’s potential for growth has also been signalled by other indicators.
“In the five years to 2011, there was a 23 per cent change in population and this is forecast to grow by another 50 per cent in the coming 19 years,” Ms Lomas said.
According to Mr Ryder, the area is also undergoing a process of urban renewal and gentrification.
“It will be one of the city precincts that grow as Perth real estate continues its recovery in 2013,” he said.
According to RP Data, the median house price in Rockingham was recorded at $375,000 in December, experiencing an annual growth of 13 per cent over the past decade, but a three per cent fall in the 12 month period ending December.
While historic sales data gives a general snapshot of what is happening in Rockingham, Australian Property Monitor’s Andrew Wilson said any sales data tend to be “looking backwards rather than forwards” due to the lags in data collection.
“If we’re looking at a yearly snapshot, we’re actually looking a year before to see what’s happening and people are more interested to seeing what is happening now, and that’s the problem with a lot of the data of house price modelling,” he explained.
As investors are actually looking back in time, he continued, “It tends to be largely irrelevant to what is happening in the market place.”
To get a broader picture of the market condition, Dr Wilson advised investors to also look at complementary data sets such as income and population growth.
