Perth prices are quickly going up
Western Australia stamps its mark as a key investment market, writes Peta Tomlinson
Chinese investors are increasingly looking at Perth, in Western Australia, rather than the traditionally favourite cities of Sydney or Melbourne.
Perth is on the same time zone as Hong Kong and the mainland, which is a tick in its favour, Taylor says. But it is also a market on the rise. As recently reported by real estate property valuations firm RP Data, Perth is the best-performing Australian capital, gaining 7.6 per cent in the year ending June. According to its methodology, this is twice the growth of second-placed Sydney (up 3.9 per cent year-on-year), and well ahead of Melbourne, where values gained only 1.8 per cent.
Perth also has three of Australia's top five "housing hot spots", according to the latest annual report on key residential growth areas produced by national building body the Housing Industry Association.
A hot spot is defined as a local area where population growth exceeds the national rate, which was 1.6 per cent in the year to June 2012, and where the value of residential building work approved is in excess of A$100 million (HK$711.6 million). Victoria dominated the ranking, accounting for 10 of the national top 20 hot spots, followed by Western Australia with four in total.