75% value growth in 5 years: Can you guess where?

For Propertyology’s head of research, Simon Pressley, the analysis is “yet another piece of compelling evidence that confirms population growth is far from the biggest influence on property market performance”.

It’s population grew by just 9.2 per cent over the same period.

Not only does it bust the population myth, but also defies the commonly held belief that “capital cities are better performers than non-capitals”, Mr Pressley said.

With respect to improving property prices, it beat out two other Tasmanian localities for the top spot – Hobart City was the runner-up, recording median house price value growth of 62 per cent.

The island state also saw a strong performance from Glenorchy, which saw a 58 per cent increase to its median house price.

Looking more broadly across the nation, strong performances were seen in regional Victoria’s Hepburn and Alpine, which saw 60 per cent increases to their own median house prices.

Not far behind was Melbourne’s Brimbank and Sydney’s Mosman – where a 57 per cent increase in each area’s median house price occurred over the same period.

He pointed to strong house price performances from regional municipalities including Mitchell (Vic), Snowy Monaro (NSW), Wingecarribee (NSW), Lithgow (NSW), Noosa (Qld), Kempsey (NSW), Byron (NSW), George Town (Tas) and Shoalhaven (NSW), where median house price growth between 45 and 51 per cent was recorded.

But again, these markets have defied a requirement for population growth.

“In most cases, their respective population growth rates were below the 7.9 percent five-year national average,” Mr Pressley stated.

On the other end of the spectrum, the researcher revealed that out of more than 500 city councils all over Australia, the Western Australian municipality of Serpentine-Jarrahdale had the third highest population growth rate (37.5 percent) over the last five years – more than quadruple the national average.

But in that region, the median house price saw a 21 per cent decline in property prices over the same period.