Small cities and key regions are dominating performance, with property markets generally highly segmented across the nation, and the City of Stirling in Perth the star performer and Melbourne the weakest city, according to the Hotspotting’s Price Predictor Index (PPI) for Autumn 2023.
Some of the top performers over the past quarter include Perth, Adelaide and Darwin, as well as Ballarat, Canning, Gladstone, Kalgoorlie, Mackay, Palmerston, Salisbury, Stirling, Townsville, and Woollongong.
Hotspotting Director Terry Ryder said an unusual feature of this quarter’s report was the fact that there didn’t appear to be a core underlying trend in markets across the nation.
Ryder said: “The previous edition – Summer 2022-23 – suggested that the pursuit for affordability was the key theme, but this Autumn’s edition finds no common issue running through the various markets across Australia.
“The reality is that markets are highly segmented; capital cities have contrasting outcomes within their borders and individual municipalities commonly have a mix of rising, consistency, plateau, and declining suburbs.”
Ryder said while the top end of markets were weak in many jurisdictions, the opposite was true in Sydney where some of the prestige markets had shown signs of recovery.
He said: “The cheaper outer-ring locations have weakened noticeably in the biggest capital cities, but they remain solid in the smaller and most buoyant cities, including Perth, Adelaide and Darwin.
“Some locations stand out consistently because of their inherent qualities.
“The City of Stirling, in the mid-northern suburbs of Perth, seems to perform well in all kinds of markets because of its location, transport links, shopping facilities, educational amenities and lifestyle features, including extensive parkland, golf courses, and beaches.
“Stirling was our National Growth Star in our Winter 2018 edition, and it re-appears as the No.1 performing market within Perth, which is currently the nation’s strongest market.
“The Stirling LGA also appeals because it offers a range of price points, from suburbs in the $300,000s and $400,000s to suburbs with median house prices above $1 million.”
The top five national market trends according to the PPI are:
- Small cities and key regions dominate
- Perth and regional Queensland prominent in the top 100
- Unit popularity rising in key locations
- Top end of market weaker but not in Sydney
- Consistency rules in many markets