Median weekly rent increases in seven WA regional centres

Seven of Western Australia’s nine regional centres recorded an increase in median weekly rent according to reiwa.com’s December 2019 quarter data, with the largest increase of $128 to $620 per week recorded in Karratha. 

REIWA President Damian Collins said for a second quarter in a row, Karratha saw the most notable improvement across both the sales and rental market.  

“On an annual basis, the median weekly rent increased $170 per week and listings for rent fell by 27 per cent, demonstrating that it is a landlord’s market in Karratha after many years of significant rent declines,” Mr Collins said. 

“reiwa.com data shows that the other mining regional areas also performed well included Port Hedland which saw an increase of $50 per week and Kalgoorlie increasing $8 per week compared to the September quarter.” 

The only two regional areas that didn’t see an increase were Albany that remained at $350 per week and Geraldton which fell by $5 to $290 per week. 

Median house price  

reiwa.com analysis shows five regional centres had stable or increased medians during the quarter.  

“Karratha was the top performing regional centre with its median lifting 6.8 per cent to $390,000 and increasing 18 per cent on an annual basis.” Mr Collins said.  

“After a turbulent few years following the slowdown in the mining sector, Karratha is starting to reap the benefits of renewed investment in mining and gas projects in the Pilbara, which is having a positive impact on the property market.”  

Other regional centres to experience quarterly improvements in median price were Geraldton (up five per cent), Broome (up 1.4 per cent), Bunbury (up 0.9 per cent) and Albany (up 0.2 per cent).  

Want to find out more on how a suburb in one of these regional areas is performing? Check out our suburb profiles. 

Sales activity  

While there have been improvements in some aspects of the property market in these regional areas, there were only three that saw an increase in sales activity for the quarter.  

“Busselton saw the biggest increase of 13 per cent, which was closely followed by Kalgoorlie with a six per cent increase and Geraldton increasing by two percent,” Mr Collins said.   

“Despite this, most of the regional areas also had a decrease in sales listings over the quarter, which is the same trend we are seeing in the rental market and demonstrates current stock is being absorbed at a faster pace than new supply entering the market.”

Looking to buy in one of these areas? Find out the WA tourist towns that are more affordable to buy than they were five years ago.