Deals abound in Tasmania
Prices drop amid economic slump in the Australian state, writes Peta Tomlinson
There's a place in Australia where the air is believed to be the world's cleanest, the scenery stretches from pristine coastline to mountain wilderness, and the soil is a rich larder of nature's bounty. That place is Tasmania - Australia's southernmost state and second-oldest settlement. Tasmania is also home to some of the most affordable real estate in the country.
Granted, the cheapest properties are not near the cities. But in a 2012 list of affordable locations, Tasmania claimed the top spot: A$91,000 (HK$656,000) being the median house price in Queenstown, an historic mining town on the west coast. But in the Derwent River suburb of Bridgewater in the southeast, only 19km from the central business district of the capital city Hobart, the median house price last year was still just A$177,822, according to RP Data.
While this year's list is not due for release until next month, it's likely that prices have dropped even further. The latest RP Data-Rismark index shows that prices in most Australian capital cities continue to creep up month by month, taking the cumulative recovery in home values to 7 per cent since the market bottomed out in May last year. Tasmania, which lost 1.1 per cent year-on-year, is the only exception.
Tim Lawless, research director at RP Data, agrees that the market is suffering. "Hobart's housing market has been the weakest-performing across Australia's capital cities, with values down 1.1 per cent over the past 12 months and 11.5 per cent lower compared with its previous market peak in late 2009. The housing market is suffering from weak economic conditions across Tasmania, where unemployment is the highest of any state or territory at just over 8 per cent," he says.
"Population growth is virtually stable, with growth of just 0.1 per cent, dragged down by a net interstate migration outflow. To top it off, residential vacancy rates are high at 4.9 per cent, which is providing for an anaemic rental market where weekly rents have moved lower for both houses and units over the most recent quarter."
There is some light amid the gloom, Lawless says. "While the market remains very weak, we have seen a substantial improvement in buyer numbers, albeit from a very low base. The number of house and unit sales was 37 per cent higher over the June quarter compared with the same period a year ago."