Australian house price predictions: The top 10 growth locations revealed

• Property prices recently recorded an uptick over the last month.
• The top ten includes locations across WA, SA, QLD, VIC, and NSW.
• The City of Stirling shines yet again.

Previously, Hotspotting exclusively revealed Perth’s best locations for sales and price growth over the next six months here.

Spring is upon us and the property market is singing. Australian property prices were found to have risen 0.28% last month, with the PropTrack data also recording a year-on-year rise of 2.64%, and a 3.51% rise in home prices so far this year.

PropTrack Home Price Index August 2023

Source: PropTrack.

The auction market is also a hit with bidders, with the first weekend of spring to see 2,401 homes go under the hammer.

Hotspotting’s latest Top 10 National Best Buys report likewise found that Australian property markets have rebounded, with affordable capital city locations and major regional areas offering solid homebuying and investment opportunities.

The research considered a comprehensive suite of metrics, including economic and property fundamentals such as infrastructure, employment nodes, urban renewal as well as lifestyle and interstate migration factors.

UPDATE: Australian property values have again hit the $10 trillion mark, previously reaching that value in June of last year. This growth in value was due to more properties on the market (11 million) and a growing median price ($732,886).

Australia’s top 10 growth locations

1. City of Stirling, WA,
2. Toowoomba, QLD,
3. Greater Geraldton, WA,
4. City of Salisbury, SA,
5. Inner West, NSW,
6. Brisbane Olympic Precinct, QLD,
7. City of Townsville, QLD,
8. City of Hume, VIC,
9. City of Belmont, WA, and
10. City of Geelong, VIC.

Hotspotting Director Terry Ryder said price data in the first seven months of the year has turned increasingly positive as property markets rebound.

“It’s important to note that the upturn in fortunes occurred long before the RBA decisions in July and August to pause its increases to the official interest rate,” said Ryder.

“Just as the decline in major markets like Sydney and Brisbane started well before the first interest rate rise in May 2022.

“This is because there are greater influences on property market outcomes than the level of interest rates.”

He added that while house prices may have dropped in the year to July, many of the best buys locations identified 12 months ago had recorded double-digit growth since that time.

“Our report a year ago featured the City of Onkaparinga in South Australia as the number one pick, followed by Toowoomba in Queensland and the City of Rockingham in Western Australia,” said Ryder.

“Those who bought the median-priced house in suburbs in those locations could have achieved capital growth of more than $100,000 in the past 12 months.

“In most cases, the top picks in that report achieved capital growth above 10% – and in some cases above 20% – at a time when the national average situation was a decline in property prices.”

City of Stirling

Putting in a sterling result, the Western Australian location has ranked well on numerous lists, including the recent Top Five Property Hotspots in Perth, a previous Top 10 National Best Buys, and Top 10 Municipalities for Growth.

Ryder noted that the local government area (LGA) has previously been considered by Hotspotting as the number one national growth star, in its Autumn 2023 Price Predictor Index.

Toowoomba

Hotspotting general manager, Tim Graham, said the regional Queensland location was previously on the National Top 10 Municipalities list in the Summer 2022-2023 edition of The Price Predictor Index.

“Some 14 of the 25 Toowoomba suburbs analysed in the report were classified as rising markets, with six others rated as consistency markets,” he said.

The city’s stellar performance continued in the Autumn and Winter 2023 editions of the report.

“The Winter 2023 edition reported that Toowoomba continued to be one of the strongest regional markets in Queensland, with a high number of consistency suburbs and no declining locations,” Graham added.

“Based on CoreLogic data for the 12 months to May 2023, Newtown, East Toowoomba, Harristown, Highfields, South Toowoomba, Wilsonton and Wilsonton Heights recorded the city’s highest annual increases in median house prices – up 15% to 17%.”

Tim Graham, Hotspotting

Graham also observed a steadily decreasing vacancy rate since December 2016, falling below three per cent by August 2017.

“Vacancy rates reached one per cent in April 2023, for the first time since December 2020, according to SQM Research data.”

Vacancy rates for Toowoomba

Greater Geraldton

Ryder said the main attraction to the regional Western Australian location was affordability. The ‘exodus to affordable lifestyle’ trend continued this year, he said, and has translated into price growth in most parts of the Geraldton market.

“This growth continues strong recent performance in the local market, with CoreLogic data in 2022 recording double-digit increases in median house prices in the Greater Geraldton region.”

City of Salisbury

Graham said Salisbury has been one of Adelaide’s strongest growing regions for both property interest and value increases.

The LGA is set to benefit from significant defence projects, totalling over $4 billion, along with a long list of infrastructure and development projects such as Edinburgh Parks Precinct, Gawler train line electrification, Riverlea Estate, and more.

Brisbane Olympic Precinct

The 2032 Summer Olympics and Paralympics to be held in Brisbane is expected to be a massive boost for the state.

Graham said suburbs in the Olympic Precinct have continued to show growth, with Woolloongabba lifting its median house price four per cent and its median unit price nine per cent in the 12 months to April 2023.

“Very few houses are available in the region for under $1 million, and the impact of preparations for the Olympic Games is set to increase those prices further,” said Graham.

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