The birthplace of the Anzac story, Albany was the best performing regional center for property in Western Australia over the last financial year, new data from the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia shows. Albany had 5.3 per cent growth in median house price over the last year, lifting it to $389,750.

REIWA’s Branch Chairman for Albany, Barry Panizza, believes there may have been some renewed interest in Albany following the hugely attended ANZAC commemorations over the last 12 months. The first convoy of Australian and New Zealand troops departed for the First World War from King George Sound in Albany on November 1, 1914, and for many, Albany was their last sight of Australian soil. Today, Albany is home to the National Anzac Centre. "Thousands of people from all over Australia got to see and experience Albany last October and again in April this year, and it wouldn’t surprise me if that resulted in a few people relocating here or acquiring an investment holiday home for the future," said Panizza.

Albany saw 456 house sales, 42 unit sales and 200 land sales over the last year. Better performing suburbs included Bayonet Head, up 8.8 percent to a median of $397,000, Mount Melville, up 5 percent to $380,000 and Spencer Park, up 4.9 percent to $350,000. The suburb with the greatest number of house sales was Yakamia, where 52 properties changed hands at a median price of $388,750, but which was a drop of almost 6 percent in price on the previous year.

"The lift in median price over the last year really only brings us back to where we were five years ago because the market has been weak for that long," said REIWA’s Branch Chairman for Albany, Barry Panizza. "However, it’s encouraging to think that we might now be returning to a better position of forward growth and it gives buyers and sellers a bit more confidence. Turnover, however, was down 10 percent on last year which could be attributed to fewer properties on the market and this also helped with price growth."

The second best performing regional centre was the Busselton which experienced 3.4 percent growth over the financial year, followed by the Goldfields/Esperance with 3.1 percent growth.

REIWA said several regional centres had zero growth or very modest fluctuations, such as Mandurah and Bunbury, while many others went backwards. Karratha dropped by 32.3 percent to a median price of $440,000. Port Hedland dropped 12 percent but still had a significant median price of $880,000, while South Hedland had a modest drop of 4.6 percent to $711,000.

reiwa.com