Strong showing for apartment sales

DEMAND for inner-city apartments in Perth appears to be growing year on year, with the latest Landgate figures revealing an average annual price growth of 14.8 per cent a year for the past five years. In 2006, 1,187 apartments were sold within the local government boundaries of the City of Perth, encompassing Crawley, East Perth, Northridge, Perth and West Perth. The median price of $389,900 is a 23.8 per cent increase on the previous year. East Perth took the largest share of inner-city apartment sales in 2006 with 373 transactions recorded, equating to a median sale price of $386,500. This is followed by the Perth CBD with 334 sales in 2006 and a median sale price of $360,500. However, the riverside locale of Crawley outshone them all last year with 89 apartment sales and a median price of $570,000. This last figure is up a significant 56.7 per cent on the previous year and is 2.5 times higher than the average percentage change in the area of 20.8 per cent over five years. Northbridge had the second highest percentage change in prices within the city over 12 months, achieving a 25.6 per cent increase in apartment prices during 2006, compared with the previous year, and recording a median price of $400,000.