AN increase in fly-in-fly-out workers residing in regional towns has helped York and Northam secure top-10 listings for growth in median house prices for regional towns and centres in the past year.
The Real Estate Institute of WA examined median house prices in regional areas for last year and, in a further boost, they expect growth to continue over the next 12 months.
York recorded the fifth highest growth for a regional town as house prices soared 9.2 per cent last year, significantly higher than the average growth in regional towns of 1.8 per cent.
The average house price is now up $25,000 from the end of 2008, to $325,000.
As a regional centre, Northam ranked eighth for growth in median house prices with a 4.2 per cent increase.
The average house price rose $10,000 to $250,000.
REIWA’s Avon Valley spokesman Michael Watts said he was not surprised at the strong growth in the two towns and suggested an influx in fly-in- fly-out workers seeking accommodation in the region may have driven prices up.
“It’s easy to get to the airport and very convenient,” he said.
“Often they have a wife and family and it is a safe environment with a good community feel.”
Mr Watts said despite York’s median house price increasing nearly 10 per cent, it came from only 46 sales over the past year after the housing boom of 2005-07.
“It’s a slow market that is partly still falsely inflated,” he said.
“It is only now coming back.”
With an average sale time of three to six months, Mr Watts said regional areas were still “good value” and interest in the housing market had recently picked up.
“It will continue steadily with good interest in the district,” he said.
“The long weekend was fantastic; we had genuine buyers.”
The median house price in Toodyay slipped 0.2 per cent in 2009 to $299,500.
The annual average growth rate over the past 10 years was 11.2 per cent.
Mr Watts said the lower end of the property market in Toodyay had picked up in late 2009 and he expected excess listings to be cleared within the next three months.