Australian Property News

Regional areas prove positive for investment

Posted on Tuesday, December 22 2009 at 5:47 PM

The top growth suburbs over the past 12 months have mostly been in the regional areas of Australia, according to an analysis of the property market's top performers.

RP Data's Best of the Best 2009 report shows the town of Tennant Creek, in the Northern Territory, recorded the highest growth for houses with values rising by 43.4 per cent while the Brisbane suburb of Tarragindi recorded the biggest increase for units at 48.3 per cent.

Tarragindi was one of only three top 10 growth suburbs found in a capital city of Australia; the rest were in regional areas.

Meanwhile, the report found that the highest rental yields for houses are exclusively found within regional mining and resource areas with South Hedland topping the list with a gross rental yield of 12 per cent.

For units, the best performers can be found in New South Wales, with four of the top five located in the state.

RP Data research analyst Cameron Kusher says the property market performed differently over the course of this year than he had expected.

"Twelve months back we were expecting that 2009 would see minimal value growth and that yields and rents would ramp up," he says.

"However, with the onset of aggressive interest rates cuts and the First Home Owners Grant Boost, the opposite has occurred and market activity was significantly stimulated as values rose by 10 per cent during the first 10 months of the year."

"Rents and yields improved during the early part of the year but both have fallen in recent months as value growth ramped up and rental growth failed to keep pace."