Coastal property prices slump
While Australia capital cities continue to record strong property price growth, it seems the coastal cities are not tracking as well.
According to new research by RP Data, capital city property values increased by a total of 10.5 per cent over the year to June 2010.
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Meanwhile, growth in the regional areas was a little more subdued with property prices climbing 5.1 per cent over the year.
While for the past 10 years house prices in coastal markets have typically seen strong levels of growth, RP Data’s research director Cameron Kusher said that for the last 12 months, the performance has been much less impressive.
For houses over the 12 months to June 2010, the top performing coastal market is Busseltonin south west WA, which experienced an increase in median house prices of 15.0 per cent for the year.
In the majority of instances house prices within these regions have recorded annual growth of less than 10 per cent over the last year. The largest falls were found in key tourism and sea change markets such as Cairns which declined by 2.7 per cent.
“Nationally, rental growth has been minimal since the onset of the global financial crisis and most of the coastal markets have reflected this. The majority of suburbs detailed have recorded growth in rents of less than 5 per cent over the year, with a number of regions having recorded declines in median rents,” Mr Kusher said.
Unit regional rental growth has also been limited over the last year with 18 of the 24 regions highlighted recoding growth of less than 5 per cent for the year.
“With the strength of the Aussie dollar at the moment, holidaying in Australia has become much more expensive for our overseas visitors. On the flipside however, our strong exchange rate makes holidaying abroad significantly more appealing for Australians. “Unfortunately a flow-on effect from this is that slower tourism markets tend to lead to a lack of employment in coastal regions. This then makes it difficult for owners of investment properties as they are ultimately less likely to be able to find tenants,” Mr Kusher said.
