House prices surge

By Chris Thomson | posted on February 15, 2018

HOUSES across urban Albany have leapt in value by 7.2 per cent, faster than in Bunbury, Esperance or metropolitan Perth.

Real Estate Institute of Western Australia figures for the December quarter show the median house price for Albany’s urban area is now $392,000.

That makes Albany more expensive than Greater Bunbury with a median of $365,000, Mandurah/Murray ($380,000), and urban Esperance ($340,000).

Albany’s 7.2 per cent increase in the three months to December 31 outpaced Greater Bunbury’s 2.8 per cent, urban Esperance’s 6.3 per cent, Mandurah/Murray’s 2.8 per cent and metropolitan Perth’s 1.2 per cent.

REIWA President Hayden Groves said Albany was one of eight regional centres across the state where median house prices rose.

He said 74 houses were sold in urban Albany in the December quarter, compared to 85 in the September quarter.

“That’s about 13 per cent fewer sales in the December quarter, but a 7.2 per cent increase in its median house price,” he explained.

“Interestingly, in the $150,000 to $360,000 bracket there were 39 sales in the September quarter versus only 25 sales in the December quarter.

“And if you go up a tier from $360,000 to the $500,000 bracket there were 31 sales in the September quarter but 34 in the December quarter.

“So that shift in the composition of more expensive property being acquired in the December quarter is what’s made the median price rise.”

Residential/lifestyle sales manager with Elders Albany Blair Scott agreed the higher end of the local market had seen most action.

“Certainly what we’re seeing is more movement in the 6, 7, 8 hundred thousand and a million bucks area,” he said.

“You only need to sell a couple in there and it will change the median price.”

Mr Scott said that at the depths of the housing slump it was difficult to sell any high-end houses.

“The prices at that top end gradually came back,” he said.

“And finally, when you get to a point where the buyers actually think there’s value, and you have buyers with that amount of money then that’s when they will start transacting.

“I think until recently that top end continued to come back a bit, and all of a sudden it’s off.”

Despite the increased median, it took an average of 89 days to sell a house in Albany over the December quarter, four days longer than in the three months to September 30. This compared favourably to 91 days across the whole of regional WA, where 1191 houses were sold.

The REIWA figures were for detached dwellings only, not units or townhouses.