This week's property round-up

The big number this week is the impending breakthrough of the 8,000 barrier for property listed for lease. Since the beginning of March when seasonal demand tailed off, rental listings have been rising at an average of 118 per week which compares with the average of 44 per week since the same time last year.

The increase since early March is being felt more in outer markets with the North West (36%), South East (31%) and South West (30%) all above the overall market increase (28%). Completion of new dwellings is likely to be a big contributor to the increase as tenants exit the rental market for new dwellings. The increase in listings has also seen the weekly median rent fall to $425 for the three months to May.

Looking at last week’s sales activity, overall numbers were down 7% and fell back just below the year to date average. The choppy nature of activity over the past couple of months is also reflected across geographic markets with both north and south of the river sales falling 5% and 9% respectively due to falls across each property category. Listings for sale continue to remain relatively stable, up just 1% for the week.

Of all the regional centres that felt the effects of the resources boom, the Geraldton-Greenough residential market emerged relatively unscathed compared to other centres.

That said, the spectre of Oakajee did drive some speculative investor activity which has left the local market generally weaker including a burgeoning stock of property for sale including some 350 blocks of vacant land and a soft rental market. As the sales graphic indicates, house sales have remained stable for the past three year and returned to a similar level prior to the 2004-07 boom.

Equally the annual median price has stabilised around $380,000 after peaking at $395,000 in 2010.  The 10 year average annual growth rate of 9.2% p.a. is benefitting from the strong price growth between 2005 and 2008 whilst the 5 year figure is near zero as activity flattened off after the GFC. The median weekly rent has fallen 11% to $320 from its peak of $360 as the stock of rental listings double over the past 18 months.