South Australia’s regional markets were shining lights in a 2013 that promised a lot in property terms, but didn’t quite deliver.
There were a lot of ‘good’ things about property last year – low interest rates were the major one. But there was also some ‘bad’. The Federal Election and all the chaos and infighting that led to the change of Prime Ministership dragged confidence levels down. The upside was the election ended the uncertainty and the new Government can now get on with the job. Luckily, we don’t need to worry about elections in 2014 (not Federal ones!)
The mid-North regions of SA performed well: Jamestown, Snowtown and Gladstone were three areas Professionals CEO, Ted Piteo, identified as good-performing markets.
Jamestown median house price began 2013 at $298,750 according to realestate.com.au and finished the year at $391,000.
All these towns remain very affordable. Snowtown’s median house price currently sits at $90,000 with Gladstone at $133,000.
Whyalla’s median house price began the year at $212,500 and finished at $387,000 (October 2013 figure).
However, other regional centres bucked the general positive trend. Port Lincoln had a downturn in property prices. In January 2014, the median house price was $400,000. In November 2013, it was $280,000. In Mount Gambier, the median house price in January 2013 was $245,000 and this dropped to $196,000 in November 2013.
*Figures from realestate.com.au