The rate of median house price growth in Perth over the past two decades has been ranked the lowest out of other Australian capital cities, a research report shows.
Property Investment Professionals of Australia (PIPA) board member Peter Koulizos analysed median house prices in the country's capital cities based on Australian Bureau of Statistics data from March 2002 to December 2022.
Hobart topped the list with a growth rate of 5.9, followed by Adelaide where the median house price increased 4.10 times in the past two decades and Canberra with a 4.08 growth rate.
However, Mr Koulizos listed Perth at the bottom of the list at a 3.05 times growth since March 2002, below Darwin's growth rate of 3.16.
The current median price in Perth is $580,000, up from $190,000 two decades ago, Mr Koulizos found.
“What these statistics also showed was that every capital city had periods where median house prices fell, rose, or flat-lined because of a variety of economic factors, including two major global events over the time period in the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.
“As property investment professionals we always encourage property buyers to purchase property as a long-term investment and to do their best to ignore any temporary impacts on median prices or markets more generally.
“That’s because, as these results show, real estate has a proven history of performance over the decades, with our nation offering a plethora of places – capital city and regional – where homeowners and property investors can strategically purchase property.”
Mr Koulizos said the median established house price in Hobart was 5.9 times higher in December 2022 than in March 2002, increasing from $123,300 to $727,000.
He found the country's three biggest capital cities recorded stellar median house price increases over the 20-year period but Melbourne and Sydney still ranked just above Darwin at a growth rate of 3.49 and 3.48, respectively.
“We always hear about the property markets of our two biggest capital cities because a large proportion of our national population live there, but when it comes to the performance over the long-term, they both are well down the leaderboard according to my analysis,” Mr Koulizos said.
“According to the ABS data, Hobart was the star performer by a country mile over the past two decades, which just goes to show that smaller cities as well as major regional areas can be sound property investment locations.”
