The residential transformation of St Kilda Road is set to continue into with more new apartment plans for the sought-after boulevard.

Wing Tai Asia has lodged plans for a major residential tower at 464-466 St Kilda Road, replacing the former VACC House with an 18-storey mixed-use development designed around a retained heritage podium and a sculpted contemporary tower.

The proposal, prepared under Victoria’s Significant Residential Development with Affordable Housing pathway, would deliver 325 apartments and ground-floor retail across the prominent 4,653 sqm boulevard site in Melbourne’s St Kilda Road North Precinct.

The project centres on the adaptive reuse of the site’s heritage-listed VACC Building, an eight-storey office designed by Bernard Evans that has occupied the address for decades. Planning documents state the development would involve “carefully dismantling and conserving off-site the original metal fabric of the podium visible from St Kilda Road,” before reinstating it as the defining frontage of the new scheme.

Above the restored podium, Wing Tai is proposing a curvilinear residential tower. The scheme includes 172 one-bedroom apartments, 63 two-bedroom apartments, 66 three-bedroom apartments, and 24 four-bedroom apartments, alongside two ground-floor food and beverage tenancies fronting St Kilda Road.

The tower has been designed with substantial articulation and variable setbacks to minimise perceived bulk and maintain view corridors along the boulevard. Urbis, which prepared the planning report, said the design “has been significantly articulated through a curvilinear design” with “an interplay with materials, façade expression and depth” to create visual separation and visual interest.

The proposal also includes 254 basement car spaces, landscaped pedestrian links connecting St Kilda Road and Queens Lane, and a biophilic landscape strategy featuring canopy trees, raised planters, cascading greenery and a glass oculus pool overlooking the eastern frontage.

Planning documents confirm the $270.1 million development will contribute 3 per cent of project costs to the Social Housing Growth Fund as part of the application process.

Wing Tai acquired the St Kilda Road property in 2018 alongside Abacus Property Group for $95.38 million, before later consolidating ownership of the site. The property previously served as the Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce headquarters for around 60 years.

The transformation of the St Kilda Rd boulevard is already beginning to materialise, with a number of high-profile projects recently completed, launched, or approaching launch as developers continue to back the long-term appeal of the precinct.

Among the most notable recent completions is Louise by Samuel Property Group, just off the strip on Queens Lane, the same pocket Hirsch &amp; Faigen recently launched The Queensbury. Mirvac is too on the same street with The Albertine, which is approaching completion.

Dexus recently secured approval for its slice of St Kilda Road, while Gurner also has approved plans for the precinct.

Joel Robinson

Wing Tai unveils 325-apartment St Kilda Road tower on former VACC House site

Malaysian developer <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/s-p-setia">SP Setia</a> is the latest to jump into St Leonards booming Transport Oriented Development precinct.

The developer, which has previously delivered Sapphire by the Gardens apartment development in Melbourne, identified the Atchison Street site in 2023. It filed a Scoping Report around 12 months ago, and now has revealed the designs for the new&nbsp;40-storey mixed-use tower.

The State Significant Development Application covers <a href="https://next-portal.urban.com.au/projects/14650/summary">20-22 Atchison Street</a>, a 1,374 sqm site positioned between St Leonards Station and the new Crows Nest Metro station.

Designed by <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/architects/cox-architecture">COX Architecture</a>, the project would deliver 181 apartments, above a four-storey commercial podium, five basement levels, and new public domain works along Mitchell Street. The apartment mix comprises 35 one-bedroom apartments, 39 one-bedroom-plus-study apartments, 85 two-bedroom apartments, and 22 three-bedroom residences.

The proposal has been lodged as a shop-top housing development under the NSW Government’s TOD planning pathway, which allows increased density around key transport infrastructure. The site sits within the recently rezoned Crows Nest Accelerated TOD Precinct.

<img alt="First look: SP Setia targets St Leonards skyline with 40-storey TOD tower" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="b799673d-48e2-46b0-801a-0e33a9330100" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/atchinson%20site.png?VersionId=dPh0UfwfaHpbFL1R7H1cbZNbIW0CHbCC" />

SP Setia acquired the Atchison Street site as part of its continued expansion into the Australian apartment market. In comments made to City &amp; Country (The Edge Malaysia) in 2023, SP Setia President and CEO Datuk Choong Kai Wai described the acquisition as “a strategic move” aligned with the group’s post-pandemic market recovery strategy.

“Our target for this exceptional development is local and overseas buyers, including first-home buyers, downsizers and investors,” Choong said.

The tower has been designed as a slender vertical form rising from a mixed-use podium, with COX Architecture positioning the development as a response to the evolving St Leonards and Crows Nest skyline.

“The purpose of the project is to facilitate the delivery of high-quality housing at a strategically located site and deliver a built tower outcome that is consistent with the desired future character of St Leonards and aligns with the TOD controls,” the design report stated.

<img alt="First look: SP Setia targets St Leonards skyline with 40-storey TOD tower" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="b1a85eee-76f7-436c-a6da-73ba827b9b13" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/atchinson%20entry.png?VersionId=dA9jHGPMcm.dDbwk4QfxqWiY5bfh3UVt" />

The podium would incorporate retail uses fronting Atchison Street, commercial tenancies, landscaped communal areas, and pedestrian improvements along Mitchell Street. Vehicle access and loading would be consolidated via Atchison Lane.

Residents would have access to more than 665 sqm of communal indoor and outdoor spaces, while the development proposes 96 parking spaces across five basement levels.

The proposal also includes a commitment for 10 per cent of residential floor space to be allocated toward affordable housing through a monetary contribution.

COX said the tower form responds directly to the emerging high-density character of the precinct while seeking to maximise solar access, cross ventilation, and outlook from apartments.

<img alt="First look: SP Setia targets St Leonards skyline with 40-storey TOD tower" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="2163f85c-f63b-4be3-aafa-f8763976cec5" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/Article%20Feature%20Image%20%28Grid%29_5.png?VersionId=WiAmtIKJ6.ZQ41EtYEQ1fol7AeorKBlL" />

“The building is orientated towards north,” the Apartment Design Guide compliance report noted, adding that the tower’s slim form was driven by the constrained inner-urban site dimensions.

The design also incorporates landscaped setbacks and communal open space at podium level, intended to soften the interface with surrounding streets and improve pedestrian amenity.

The project adds to a growing wave of redevelopment proposals reshaping St Leonards and Crows Nest following the opening of the Sydney Metro City line and the NSW Government’s push for higher-density housing around major transport nodes.

Last week Stockland filed plans just down the road. They want to build a <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/601-pacific-highway-st-leonards-nsw-2065">52-storey tower on Pacific Highway</a>.

Read more:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/news/nsw/first-look-stockland-plans-52-storey-538-apartment-st-leonards-tower">First look: Stockland plans 52-storey, 538-apartment St Leonards tower&nbsp;</a>

First look: SP Setia targets St Leonards skyline with 40-storey TOD tower

<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/urban-property-group">Urban Property Group</a> has revealed plans for a new mixed-use tower at 10 Dangar Street, Wickham, advancing a proposal that would reshape the southern gateway to Newcastle’s city centre with one of the city’s tallest residential buildings.

The State Significant Development proposal, now on exhibition, seeks approval for a <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/bowline-10-dangar-street-wickham-nsw-2293">43-storey tower</a> immediately adjacent to the Newcastle Interchange. The project would deliver around 200 apartments, including 42 affordable housing dwellings, alongside 99 co-living units, a 171-room hotel, retail space, and new public domain integrated through the site.

The scheme marks a significant escalation of plans previously approved for the site. Urban Property Group took over the prominent 2,904 sqm parcel, where excavation and demolition had already commenced under an earlier consent for a 14-storey mixed-use development.

<img alt="First look: Urban Property Group unveils Newcastle’s next supertower at Wickham interchange" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="58a96dd9-407f-4d20-86b4-94e4bfeef74b" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/wickham%20podium.png?VersionId=LGlf08pdFGAZDzvx_CXC4XakHNZRuEE0" />

Designed by <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/architects/sjb-architects">SJB</a>, the tower has been conceived as a landmark transit-oriented development anchored to the Newcastle Interchange precinct. The proposal includes 245 build-to-sell apartments across a mix of one, two, and three-bedroom residences, as well as two penthouses. Fifteen apartments and one operational unit are earmarked for NDIS housing. The co-living component would add a further 99 units, while the podium would accommodate retail uses and hotel facilities.

SJB said the site presents “a valuable opportunity to anchor the precinct by setting the standard for design, active ground planes and character at the key southern gateway.”

The architecture responds directly to the site’s position beside major transport infrastructure and within one of Newcastle’s fastest-evolving urban renewal precincts. The tower form sits above a sculpted podium designed to frame new public spaces, including a through-site pedestrian link connecting Station Street to Hannell Street, landscaped plazas, and activated retail edges.

<img alt="First look: Urban Property Group unveils Newcastle’s next supertower at Wickham interchange" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="a7bd6ff0-f7db-4ce8-a6dc-ea56e72c6149" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/wickham%20lanne.png?VersionId=xzf39VADyhj7zBQY2I9fx9vI62u2tuSb" />

The design report describes the project as part of the broader transition of Wickham into “a vibrant, high-quality mixed-use urban precinct” that leverages proximity to the station, open space, and regional connectivity.

A detailed public art strategy has also been prepared for the development. The strategy positions the project as “a transit-oriented development of state significance at the gateway to Newcastle’s city centre” and outlines a series of integrated artworks responding to Newcastle’s industrial and transport heritage.

Creative Road’s curatorial framework for the project, titled Unveil, draws on “stratified surfaces, carved volumes, and light-filled apertures” while referencing Newcastle’s transformation from an industrial city into a contemporary education and technology hub.

<img alt="First look: Urban Property Group unveils Newcastle’s next supertower at Wickham interchange" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="77a882bb-14b1-4d28-99ff-9438e39508c0" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/wickham%20site.png?VersionId=cevgo_vN0eKPK78P8YcEu3mKPLkpFqE7" />

The proposal is being advanced through the NSW Housing Delivery Authority pathway after being declared State Significant Development in June 2025. The accompanying scoping report states the development aims to “maximise the site’s proximity to the Newcastle Interchange by delivering transit-oriented development” while increasing housing supply and affordable housing provision within the Newcastle LGA.

Urban Property Group’s plans align with the long-term strategic vision established under the Wickham Master Plan, which identified the interchange precinct as suitable for substantial uplift in height and density. The current proposal would significantly intensify that vision, positioning the tower among the tallest developments proposed for Newcastle.

The site sits immediately north of the Newcastle Interchange, bounded by Dangar Street, Hannell Street, and Charles Street. It is surrounded by a rapidly growing cluster of residential towers and mixed-use projects that have emerged following the completion of the light rail and transport interchange.

First look: Urban Property Group unveils Newcastle’s latest tower at Wickham interchange

Bottega House has completed settlement of a landmark riverfront site in Macquarie Street, St Lucia, representing its first major Brisbane development.&nbsp;

Positioned on the banks of the Brisbane River, the <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/180-macquarie-street-st-lucia-qld-4067">premium site at 180 Macquarie Street</a> features uninterrupted river frontage in one of Brisbane’s most tightly held residential precincts.&nbsp;

The proposed development, currently under assessment with Brisbane City Council, has been designed by <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/architects/plus-studio">Plus Studio</a> with interiors by <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/interior-designers/mim-design">Mim Design</a> and will deliver a boutique collection of premium residences positioned specifically for owner occupiers and downsizers.&nbsp;

The residences are set to redefine luxury apartment living in the area, with a focus on architectural quality, refined finishes, landscape integration and elevated amenities including curated wellness facilities, resort-style pools and recreation spaces rarely seen in the local market.&nbsp;

Exclusive sales for the project will be led by Keenan &amp; Byrne, ahead of an anticipated launch later this year.&nbsp;

Bottega House Managing Director Nick Malloch said the project reflects the group’s ambition to deliver a highly curated residential offering within one of Brisbane’s most tightly held precincts.&nbsp;

“This is an incredibly rare riverfront opportunity and one we have approached with a long-term perspective,” Malloch said.&nbsp;

“Our vision from the outset was to create a boutique collection of residences that feel more like private homes than traditional apartments, with generous proportions, refined finishes and exceptional amenity throughout."

Malloch says there is a&nbsp;lack of premium owner-occupier stock of this quality in the market, particularly for downsizers wanting space, privacy and a true lifestyle offering without compromise.&nbsp;

"Demand is expected to be strong given the scarcity of premium riverfront opportunities of this nature within Brisbane’s inner-west."&nbsp;

Bottega House secures landmark riverfront site in St Lucia 

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The arrival of the first piling rig officially marks the commencement of construction at SIERA’s new beachside apartment development, Exhale, in Northcliffe.

<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/exhale-surfers-paradise-8-enderley-avenue-surfers-paradise-qld-4217">Exhale</a>, a glass-encased tower featuring 54 large-scale apartments at 8 Enderley Avenue, is SIERA’s third Gold Coast development. It follows the recently completed PIPIS Bilinga beachfront project, which achieved suburb-record prices, and the soon-to-be-completed Chevron Island development, Tapestry.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=112661 project_image_fid=359603]

<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/siera">SIERA</a> Founder and Managing Director Brent Thompson said the arrival of the piling rig represented a significant milestone for the development, which is scheduled for completion in late 2028.

Over the next month, around 260 piles are expected to be installed as work progresses on the basement structure. The building is anticipated to rise above ground level early next year, before unveiling its sculptural glass curtain wall, developed in collaboration with specialist façade engineers.

“The façade was designed to maximise panoramic coastal views while creating a distinctive architectural identity,” Thompson said.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=112661 project_image_fid=355935]

Designed by BDA Architecture, Exhale will comprise just 54 two- and three-bedroom residences across 26 levels, a level of low-density living rarely delivered in this beachside pocket between Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach.

The project has been conceived as a resident-only building, with no short-stay accommodation permitted. SIERA says the model is intended to appeal to long-term owner-occupiers rather than transient holiday demand.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=112661 project_image_fid=361052]

Residences have been designed with large-format layouts and expansive glazing, with most apartments featuring more than 30 metres of glass frontage to maximise natural light and ocean views.

The amenity offering spans two levels and centres on wellness and lifestyle, including a heated magnesium pool, sauna, yoga and Pilates studio, gymnasium, private dining facilities, cinema lounge, and dedicated surfcraft storage.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=112661 project_image_fid=359607]

More than half of the apartments have already sold. SIERA has also opened a sales gallery for Exhale at its Chevron Island commercial premises, near its Tapestry tower and the site of its second Chevron Island apartment development, which is slated to launch in early 2027.
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[smartcode_project_cta:default project_id=112661]

SIERA kicks off construction at Northcliffe tower Exhale

Terry Ryder

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One of the great absurdities of real estate research is the notion that you can encapsulate price growth for a major city in a single figure. 
The Greater Sydney area has a population of 4.82 million (2016 Census) and contains over 700 suburbs. They include markets as diverse as Macquarie Park versus Macquarie Fields and Newtown versus Campbelltown.
They’re not all doing to the same thing at any one time, nor moving at the same speed.
But the research houses would have us believe that you can distil all the sales activity in these contrasting places into a single growth figure that makes sense.
It’s crazy to even try, but that’s what they do. And media laps it up, so long as it’s presented in a neat little media release package that makes journalists’ lives really easy.
This may explain why Sydney house prices are growing at an annual rate of 7.4 percent if you believe SQM Research asking price growth index, or 4 percent if you trust the latest figures from Domain, or just 0.1 percent if you think CoreLogic is the bee’s knees in real estate data.
Melbourne house prices are growing at either 8 percent, 11.3 percent or 23.6 percent in annual terms, depending on your source of choice.
The Adelaide is rising, or falling; the Perth market is recovering, or not; and Canberra is up 5 percent or 18 percent – all dependent on which report you read most recently.
In my view, all real estate data is rubbery figures, to some degree.
And it’s adds an extra level of absurdity when economists, the least informed species about residential property on planet Earth, discuss Australian real estate as a single market. They all do it and media reports their misinformation daily – because if they have “economist” in their title they must be credible, right?
The reality is that we have a five-speed market in just the eight capital cities – and within those cities they are many different scenarios playing out.
We never have a situation in a major city where all parts of the market are rising (or falling) in unison.
Generally speaking, cycles start in a central point and ripple outwards gradually. The up-cycles in both Melbourne and Sydney began in the so-called prime suburbs and gravitated outwards over 3-4 years.
It’s a signal that the cycle has almost run its course when the areas with the most sales activity and price growth are in the outer-ring suburbs. We’re at that time right now with both our largest cities, with the Camden LGA one of the few remaining upwardly-mobile markets in Greater Sydney, and outlying areas like the Hume LGA and the Wyndham City LGA the strongest markets in Greater Melbourne.
What’s happening with our major markets makes a lot more sense when you chart them using sales volumes, rather than changes in price measures. 
The latter method is fraught with potential for aberrations, with the results dependent on methodology and other factors, as the figures presented earlier illustrate very clearly.
Sydney house prices are not growing at an annual rate of 4 percent, as Domain would have us believe. Some suburbs are growing more than that, others are at the point in the cycle where they’re not growing at all and some have values going a little backwards. A few areas, particularly those close to over-supplied apartment precincts, will have larger declines in values.
But none of that will be conveyed to real estate consumers – they’ll be given a single misleading figure encapsulating the whole city, only to be contradicted a few days later by a different number from another source.
But the sales activity figures (which we examine every quarter for The Price Predictor Index) seldom lie.
They’re revealing in all sorts of ways. For example, how about this question: when did the Melbourne market peak?
For in the swanky inner south-eastern suburbs such as Hawthorn (median price $2.1 million) and Canterbury ($2.9 million), it was early in 2014.
For middle market areas like Blackburn ($1.3 million) and Oakleigh ($1.2 million) it was the early part of 2015. And outer-ring precincts like Cranbourne ($480,000) and Carrum Downs ($500,000) hit their high points late in 2016 or early in 2017. Other outlying areas arrived at that point towards the end of last year.
It shows the many different market scenarios in play across the nation – and the degree to which economists and other commentators misinform consumers with their one-size-fits-all approach to real estate analysis.
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terryryder-YECXbqmri2

Property price growth cycles start in a central point and ripple outwards gradually: Hotspotting's Terry Ryder

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Price growth in the Top end suburbs can often be a signal for an emerging growth cycle in a city market. 
Certainly, the booms in both Sydney and Melbourne started in the most expensive areas and rippled out to the middle-ring and outer-ring areas over time. 
This is because real estate growth comes from events in the local economy. When the underlying economy in a major city starts to thrive, the first people to benefit are the business owners and others with above-average incomes - and that translates into purchases in the prestige suburbs.
So we think it is significant that, while prices remain suppressed in Perth overall, many of the millionaire suburbs have seen good price growth in the past year. This is also a feature in Adelaide: price growth overall has been moderate but prices have been rising strongly in the Top End suburbs.
It’s much less prevalent in the Brisbane market, which is struck in second gear and struggling to accelerate.
One factor evident in our latest analysis of sales activity and prices is that there is growth in the upper end of the Perth market. The latest data shows that several Perth suburbs with median house prices above $1 million have recorded strong growth in their medians in the past 12 months. 
This trend is widespread across the prestige market. Suburbs with strongly rising prices include Nedlands, Applecross, Cottesloe, Dalkeith and Bicton. 
Confidence that the upturn is sustainable comes from revival in the mining sector and the large numbers of jobs being created. As the WA economy improves, businesses thrive and business people become more confident in their real estate purchases.
This suggests that Perth generally can look forward to a return to price growth in the near future. This is supported by recent reports from Knight Frank, SQM Research and the Real Estate Institute of WA.
In Adelaide, while sources such as CoreLogic and SQM Research report annual growth of only 1-2% in Adelaide house prices, these generalised figures disguise individual areas which have done better.
It’s noteworthy that several millionaire suburbs have recorded major growth in their median house prices in past 12 months.
Glenelg South, Kensington Park, St Georges, Erindale, Henley Beach South, Hyde Park, North Adelaide and Hazelwood Park all have median prices above $1 million and have had median price growth above 20% in the past year. Other upper-level suburbs like Glenunga, Norwood, Parkside, Beaumont and Crafers have had growth above 10%. 
Some suburbs have had median price growth above 35% (and one above 40%) but based on small sales samples so we think this may be misleading.
In Brisbane, however, only a handful of popular inner-ring suburbs (e.g. Ashgrove, Paddington and Bulimba) have recorded double-digit growth in median prices in the past year.
Some examples of rising markets in the Top End of some capital cities:-
Click here <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/images/2018/8/21/ryder2.jpg" target="_blank">to enlarge.</a>
<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dz9xllyip/image/fetch/c_scale,w_580,q_auto:good/https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/po.images/2018/8/21/ryder2.jpg" alt="">
Terry Ryder is the founder of hotspotting.com.au
<a href="https://mailto:ryder@hotspotting.com.au">ryder@hotspotting.com.au</a>
twitter.com/hotspotting
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Prestige markets rising in smaller cities like Perth and Adelaide: Hotspotting's Terry Ryder

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EXPERT OBSERVER
There are strong linkages between events in the local economy and outcomes in real estate markets.
If a city’s economy is growing and creating jobs, real estate markets will be busy.
Proximity to employment nodes is an important marker to look for, remembering that most of the jobs are in the suburbs, not in the CBDs.
At Hotspotting we’re scouring information sources every day looking for events that indicate buoyancy (or otherwise) in local economies.
If a major new infrastructure project is planned, we want to know about it. If a business is expanding, creating hundreds of extra jobs, that’s worth adding to our database of knowledge. If a company is relocating its business because of a particular dynamic in the new location, that creates a blip on our radar screen.
Here are some examples of what I mean:
Tesla and South Australia
Elon Musk’s Tesla has set up the group’s first Australian battery and electric cars service centre at the Tonsley innovation precinct in Adelaide. 
Heath Walker, senior manager, marketing and communications at Tesla, says: “The facility will help service our growing footprint in the state, including the <a href="https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/worlds-largest-lithium-battery-switched-on-near-jamestown/news-story/2c4992845ce77309d7dad0d48a2d754c">Hornsdale battery system</a> and other Powerwall systems we have there, including one recently installed at the TAFE facility at Tonsley.”
The Federal and State Governments last month announced they will invest in South Australia’s second large-scale Tesla “big battery’’. The 52MWh battery will be connected to the existing Lake Bonney Wind Farm near Millicent in the state’s south-east.
Tesla installed Australia’s first big battery - and currently the world’s largest at 100MWh - at Jamestown, next to the Hornsdale wind farm run by French company Neoen.
In July, Tesla installed residential-scale batteries at 100 Housing SA homes, equipped with solar panels as part of the first phase of a State Government-backed 250 MW virtual power plant. A further 1000 public housing properties will receive the same equipment in the second phase.
Why do we care? Because the South Australian economy is on a growth path and a significant part of the emerging growth is the state’s status as the national leader on alternative energy and Adelaide’s growing reputation as the nation’s leading city for high-tech innovation.
The Tonsley precinct, which has emerged from the ashes of a former Mitsubishi car plant, is a thriving innovation, health and education centre in the Marion LGA, which we rate highly as an emerging hotspot.
Youi and the Sunshine Coast
Insurance company Youi is currently seeking to recruit 120 people for its headquarters on the Sunshine Coast. 
When the $73 million building at Sippy Downs first opened in November 2017, it employed 1,000 people and the company's stated vision was to eventually grow this to 3,000. 
Youi’s decision to locate its national HQ on the Sunshine Coast is indicative of the evolution of this location from tourist resort to regional city.
A lot is changing in the Sunshine Coast economy, much of it inspired by major spending on infrastructure and new business ventures. 
The new medical precinct, based around the $2 billion Sunshine Coast University Hospital, has been a game-changer.  Billions more are being spent on the local airport, key sections of the motorway, the new Maroochydore CBD and many other projects. 
The total list of Sunshine Coast projects is worth over $20 billion and it’s transforming the local economy - and with it the local property market.
Ipswich and the military economy
Any location with a strong military economy has an advantage. Cities with a RAAF Base and/or Army base have a built-in generator of economic activity and jobs, particularly given the current national trend of expansion.
Examples include Newcastle, northern Adelaide, Wagga Wagga and Ipswich in the far south-west of Brisbane.
Ipswich has the Amberley RAAF Base on its doorstep and has a growing number of major businesses servicing the military.
It was announced recently that TAE Aerospace will develop a Turbine Engine Maintenance Facility (TEMF) in the Ipswich suburb of Bundamba to support Australia’s fifth-generation F-35 Joint Strike fighter jets. 
The addition of the F135 engine MRO&amp;U activities will add 15 aerospace technician jobs to its workforce and up to 85 additional jobs as part of the future F-35 Global Support Solution.
Not far away in Wacol, Rheinmetall is building its $170 million Military Vehicle Centre of Excellence to build vehicles for the Australian Army. Watpac has been appointed managing contractor to deliver the facility, which is expected to support 300 jobs, with completion expected in 2020.
The facility will be Rheinmetall's largest presence outside of Germany and will manage the delivery of the initial 211 Boxer combat reconnaissance vehicles under Land 400 Phase 2, and accommodate Rheinmetall's other defence projects.
Also in Wacol, Volvo Group Australia recently opened its new national headquarters at the Metroplex Westgate business park, close to the company’s existing assembly plant.
Around 300 jobs were created during construction of the new headquarters and around 195 people will now work there, along with 530 at the nearby factory.
For these and many other reasons, I’m bullish about the prospects for real estate growth in Ipswich, which has many affordable suburbs and strong infrastructure, as well as many big jobs nodes. Businesses base themselves there because the land is cheap and the transport links are good.
Terry Ryder is the founder of hotspotting.com.au
<a href="https://mailto:ryder@hotspotting.com.au">ryder@hotspotting.com.au</a>
twitter.com/hotspotting
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Military economy benefiting Ipswich property investors: Hotspotting's Terry Ryder

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A university study suggests the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, which are costing around $2 billion to stage, will deliver Queensland a $4 billion economic windfall. 
The question is how much impact the Games will have on Gold Coast real estate markets. We can sure the industry will talk up the benefits and the prodigious Gold Coast publicity machine will be working overtime to lure investors – but I believe the outcomes for real estate will be over-stated.
A Griffith University report says the Games will result in billions of dollars in new public and private infrastructure and 670,000 extra tourists. It will help create 30,000 jobs and stimulate benefits for business years after the Games end. 
The Griffith Institute For Tourism-led report predicts the Games will be “an economic supercharger” for the Gold Coast and Queensland. 
The 68-page report - by five academics specialising in tourism, accounting and finance – says “the state and the country will benefit for years to come”. 
“The Games will bring more international visitors to the state, create business opportunities, and further facilitate multi-faceted cultural exchange,” it says. “The potential impacts ... are multifaceted and include not only economic but social and environmental aspects.” 
A $2 billion boost to the state’s gross domestic product is a key forecast in the report, which also tips $2.6 billion in public and private sector investment. 
The Games are deemed to have been a catalyst for projects such as the $420 million second stage of the Gold Coast light-rail linking to the heavy rail line at Helensvale, as well as upgrades to Pacific Far ($670 million), The Star hotel casino ($345 million), the Gold Coast Airport ($300 million) and various transport infrastructure improvements. 
Then there’s specific Games infrastructure, including the $550 million athletes village, the $110 million Gold Coast Sport and Leisure Centre, the $40 million Gold Coast Aquatic Centre and the $40 million Coomera Indoor Sports Centre.
Around 16,000 full-time equivalent jobs are forecast to be generated before, during and after the Games, plus another 14,000 temporary positions. 
So, while the economic and infrastructure benefits appear clear, less certain are the impacts on the real estate market.
The Commonwealth Games promise to provide a short-term sugar hit for the real estate market – and we’ve seen much of that impact already. 
The benefits for housing demand relate to the jobs created by the event and related construction work. There have been thousands of workers drawn to the Gold Coast for the construction jobs in the lead-up to the event. But most of those jobs disappear once projects are completed prior to the Games.
This explains why the Gold Coast was a leading growth market in 2015 and 2016 – but has started to level out in terms of sales activity in 2017.
The other factor – and this is the big one – is the degree to which developers over-react to the Games impact and over-build.
The Gold Coast is a notorious boom-bust market even in “normal” times. It lurches from peak to trough periodically – and often takes years to recover from a bout of major oversupply.
This helps to explain why the median price for an apartment in Surfers Paradise is lower today than it was a decade ago. It’s similar for other coastal suburbs like Main Beach and Broadbeach.
Over-supply is the biggest killer of property markets across Australia and the Gold Coast is a leading example of this phenomenon.
Developers, partly in response to the Games euphoria, are building more high-rise unit projects, and larger projects, than ever before.
I fear that this will snuff out any chance of the Gold Coast market experiencing a sustainable boom from the Commonwealth Games.
Any investors tempted by the euphoria should steer clear of the high-rise markets and concentrate on the genuine housing markets inland.
Terry Ryder is the founder of hotspotting.com.au
<a href="https://mailto:ryder@hotspotting.com.au">ryder@hotspotting.com.au</a>
<a href="https://twitter.com/hotspotting" target="_blank">twitter.com/hotspotting</a>
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How will the Commonwealth Games impact the Gold Coast real estate markets?

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One of the prevailing myths in residential real estate is that you should always buy in the capital cities because regional centres can’t match the big cities on capital growth.
And like most generalised commentary on Australian housing issues, it’s rubbish.
The myth is supported by research companies which specialise in trying to encapsulate an entire nation or a very large region in a single growth figure.
Here’s a recent example: dwelling values have grown 7 percent in the combined capital cities in the past 12 months, but the combined regional areas have grown 5 percent.
That’s pretty clear, right? The capital cities win again!
But, like all generalisations about Australian real estate, the figures are meaningless and essentially useless.
The 7% growth figure for capital cities doesn’t tell us anything useful, because it disguises two cities where values have fallen, two where values have grown very little, a couple with solid growth and a couple with strong growth.
And within those capital cities, there are myriad different scenarios playing out for local reasons.
So you can imagine how many disparate and diverse local market situations contribute to the huge melting pot that distils them into one small, misleading and basically pointless figure for “regional Australia”: 5% growth, according to one source.
Why do they do it? Because media laps it up and gives them lots of free publicity for this steady stream of worthless misinformation.
Much more useful is looking at individual markets – some of which blow away the myth about regional markets under-performing.
The city of Newcastle is as good an example as any. Newcastle - driven by a strong local economy and big spending on infrastructure and new development, as well as appealing prices relative to Sydney - has produced extremely strong price growth in the past two years (as we predicted at Hotspotting).
Most suburbs of the Newcastle City LGA have had double-digit growth in their median house prices in the past 12 months. Eight of those suburbs have grown more than 20 percent, including a couple above 30 percent.
The median for Waratah is up 16 percent to $555,000, Adamstown is up 23 percent to $655,000, Stockton has grown 21 percent to $690,000, Maryville 26 percent to $720,000 and Cooks Hill 32 percent to $1,085,000.
Under-pinning that growth has been massive investment in the Newcastle economy. The Hotspotting lists of projects driving the economic growth total well over $20 billion, including resources, transport infrastructure, commercial, retail and residential developments.
The only regional city in Australia that can match Newcastle for this level of investment is the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, which also tops $20 billion.
Of course, given the very high price growth that’s already occurred in Newcastle, it’s too late to get into that market at a decent price.
But there are other ways to benefit from what’s happening in Newcastle, which is part of a broader region.
The Lake Macquarie LGA, which borders Newcastle City, is also a growth market but hasn’t yet had the same level of price increases.
And heading west out into the Hunter Valley, there are numerous towns moving into growth phases but with the big price growth yet to come – such as Maitland and Cessnock.
Terry Ryder is the founder of hotspotting.com.au
<a href="https://mailto:ryder@hotspotting.com.au">ryder@hotspotting.com.au</a>
twitter.com/hotspotting
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Regional centres can match capital growth of big cities

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Real estate abounds with myths and misconceptions and there are few bigger than this furphy: you always get the best growth in the “prime” areas.
That old chestnut has always been false but commentators still repeat it, particularly those who make their living from selling real estate in the millionaire suburbs.
The top end of town in both Melbourne and Sydney have seen good growth in recent years, but over the longer-term they’re not the market leaders.
In Melbourne, the prime market is headed by suburbs like Toorak (median price $4.7 million) and Canterbury (a tick under $3 million). Toorak’s 10-year growth average is 5.9 percent a year, which is pretty ordinary, while Canterbury averages 6.8 percent. By contrast, the previously-stigmatized Sunshine suburbs in the western suburbs all average above 10 percent a year, while humble Thomastown and Lalor up in the northern fringes of the Melbourne metro area average better than 9 percent.
There are many similar examples to be found across Sydney and Melbourne.
It’s good news for real estate consumers, most of whom can’t afford the swanky suburbs and are simply looking for locations where the prices are attainable and the growth prospects are strong.
Fortunately, there are plenty of options around Australia.
Right now, the most buoyant markets – as well as the ones with the best future prospects – are generally the more affordable ones.
While the average price performance for Sydney and Melbourne is now a little in the negative, it’s mostly happening in the expensive areas, while the more affordable outer-ring markets are still delivering some growth.
Our strongest capital city market right now is the cheapest one, Hobart.
The capital cities with the best prospects moving forward are those which offer a lot more affordable options than Sydney or Melbourne – namely, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.
And in terms of the markets that are showing the greatest activity and highest price growth right now – they’re mostly regional centres, where prices are a lot more attractive than their capital cities.
Geelong has thrived partly because of the price comparison with Melbourne and Newcastle has surged thanks in part to its pricing compared to Sydney.
For these and other reasons, the most popular reports at Hotspotting include the ones we call Cheapies with Prospects. We have a city edition and a regional edition.
Each edition has five locations worth considering and here I’m focusing on three of them, to illustrate why cheaper areas with good growth drivers are worthy of attention from real estate consumers.
Ipswich City
Not many capital cities offer suburbs with median house prices below $300,000 but Brisbane does. You’re most likely to find them in Ipswich City (pictured above) in the south-west of the Greater Brisbane area – although suburbs with medians in the $300,000s are more common.
So the area offers plenty of “Cheapies” but the key words are “With Prospects”, and Ipswich City offers plenty of potential for growth.
It has good infrastructure, transport links, amenities and major job nodes, helped by the evolution of master-planned communities like Springfield. 
A key factor in identifying hotspots is what’s coming up in the near future and this is what puts Ipswich firmly on our radar screen: there is big spending on infrastructure, like the ongoing expansion of the RAAF Base at Amberley, and major new jobs nodes, like the one being created by the $5 billion Defence contract recently announced.
City of Marion
The South Australian economy is steadily improving and prospects for Adelaide property markets are rising. 
I like the City of Marion because it’s middle market by Adelaide standards but its price levels are below the bottom end of Sydney and Melbourne.
Several suburbs have median house prices in the $300,000s though there are more in the $400,000s. The LGA is handy to the Adelaide CBD, with good transport links, and has multiple growth drivers, including Flinders University, the nearby Flinders medical precinct and the strongly-emerging Tonsley precinct created from the former Mitsubishi car plant.
Ballarat
Regional Australia abounds with growth markets at the moment and many of them have attractive prices.
Ballarat in Victoria stands out because it’s a strong, growing regional city with great links to its capital city, but at a fraction of the price.
There are growing numbers of Melbourne residents prowling Ballarat looking for affordable properties with attractive rental yields, amid a thriving local economy.
There are suburbs with median house prices in the mid-$200,000s and others in the low-to-mid-$300,000s. Yields in the 4.5 to 5.5 percent range are on offer.
Several locations have recorded double-digit price growth in the past 12 months.
The most popular suburbs, in terms of sales numbers, are Wendouree and Sebastopol, both of which have a median price of $260,000.
Terry Ryder is the founder of hotspotting.com.au
<a href="https://mailto:ryder@hotspotting.com.au">ryder@hotspotting.com.au</a>
twitter.com/hotspotting
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Three of the best and cheapest locations with growth prospects: Terry Ryder

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EXPERT OBSERVER
The virus crisis creates unique challenges for everyone in real estate, including those of us who research, analyse and write reports. 
Every quarter I write The Price Predictor Index, which analyses key data like sales activity and price trends for every suburb and town in Australia. Researching and writing that report stretches typically across two months – and in the past two months the world has changed.
In some ways, the world is forever changed but the fundamentals underpinning Australia will not change. Areas with strong and diverse economies, growing populations, good existing infrastructure and investment in new infrastructure, will continue to be good places to own real estate. The underlying principles of supply and demand will remain intact on the other side of the shutdown.
The Autumn 2020 edition of the PPI is based on data that pre-dates the full impact of the virus crisis on property markets (remembering that the figures from both CoreLogic and SQM Research show little negative impact during March) but it shows that Australia was full of strong markets going into the crisis – and gives a clue to life on the other side.
The report identified growth markets right across Australia, finding uplift in places you don’t hear much about in mainstream media, as well as in the usual places. Based on our analysis of sales activity, the leading market jurisdictions were Regional New South Wales and Adelaide, ahead of Melbourne and Sydney. 
Other strong performers, in terms of the number of locations with rising sales activity, were Regional Queensland, Perth, Brisbane and Canberra. Regional South Australia was a surprise stand-out.
Our Autumn 2020 survey identified 77 growth markets in Regional NSW, while Adelaide and Melbourne both had 69 suburbs with rising momentum - but we rate Adelaide higher because it had the same number of growth market as Melbourne despite being a much smaller city. 
The survey reveals that both Sydney and Melbourne were well into growth phases prior to the onset of the coronavirus period, as part of a major upward movement in most market jurisdictions across Australia. 
Exceptions included the two previous national leaders, Regional Victoria and Hobart, which were both past the peaks of their recent upward cycles. We would expect price growth in those plateau-ing markets to level off - even without the additional impact created by the virus.
The report underlines some of the key principles of real estate which won’t change amid the current uncertainty. It demonstrates that price movements are preceded by significant changes in sales activity - and that prices take time to react to those trends. 
Our quarterly analysis shows that areas which experience a steady uplift in sales volumes will have increases in prices - eventually. And locations where sales activity is declining will eventually see price growth cease, or price decline. 
Both Sydney and Melbourne had falling prices in 2018 and early 2019, and this was preceded by a steady fall-off in sales volumes in the 12-18 months before values began their descent. Most researchers measure market peaks by price behaviour but at Hotspotting we measure it by analysing sales volumes – which allows predictions of whether prices will rise or fall in the near future.
The report also provides further evidence of the folly of generalisation about property markets. Media often discusses Australia as a single market, with forecasts of the likely movement in “Australian house prices”. It’s a ludicrous concept, but that’s what they do, fed by press releases from economists who discuss real estate as a single national entity. 
It is equally foolish to discuss a city as a single market. Our Autumn 2020 survey shows that while there was a noteworthy recovery under way in both Sydney and Melbourne in late 2019 and early 2020, the uplift was not occurring evenly across those very large metro areas. 
In Sydney, the revival was seen most vividly in upmarket areas like the Northern Beaches and the Inner West. The outer ring locations remained relatively quiet (with the notable exception of the Blacktown LGA). 
And while Sydney overall was the strongest we had recorded in any of our quarterly surveys in the past five years, there remained 12 suburbs we classified as declining markets and another 12 we rated as danger markets. The latter were all locations dominated by apartments, where extensive recent new development had created over-supply, without any evidence as yet of an increase in demand or prices. 
In Melbourne, we saw some similar patterns, with considerable uplift in the top end suburbs and also in Middle Melbourne - strong middle-ring locations like the Whitehorse LGA - but relatively little response in many of the outer ring areas. Melbourne still had 16 suburbs classified as declining markets, but no danger markets.
Equally, there can be stark contrasts in the performance of suburbs within a single local government area. The City Of Sydney LGA had five rising, 11 plateau, one danger and three declining markets - all those contrasting fortunes within one municipality, covering just 25 square kilometres of inner-city Sydney. 
Real estate markets are primarily driven by local events, even though national factors can impact sometimes. And we’ll find out how much when we see the data for April and May.
I continue to expect the negative impacts from the virus crisis to be short-term – and that, when we’re through this bizarre period in the life of the nation, the fundamentals will still apply.
Terry Ryder is the founder of hotspotting.com.au
<a href="https://mailto:ryder@hotspotting.com.au">ryder@hotspotting.com.au</a>
twitter.com/hotspotting
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Negative impacts of COVID-19 on real estate to be short-term: Hotspotting's Terry Ryder

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EXPERT OBSERVER

Regional Victoria remains one of the nation’s leading markets, especially on price performance. Of the 138 suburbs and towns ranked our Price Predictor Index, 116 of them have recorded price growth in the past year. 

That means 84% of locations throughout Regional Victoria have growing prices. More than half of those growth markets have increased their median house prices more than 5% in the past year, including many which have had double-digit growth.

The strength of prices in Regional Victoria is confirmed by the latest price data published by CoreLogic on 1 June. House prices recorded, after recording solid increases in March and April, were unchanged in May, while unit prices were up 0.5% during the month.

Regional areas of the state have been boosted by buyers out of Melbourne, including home buyers seeking a more relaxed and affordable lifestyle, while in some cases working remotely for a city business. The coronavirus shutdown period which forced people to work from home is likely to further enhance this trend.

Our Winter survey of sales activity reveals that Regional Victoria has remained quite resilient in terms of sales activity, in the faces of the Covid-19 impacts. There has been only a minor reduction in the number of locations with growing sales activity, compared to the results of our Autumn survey.

There are 27 locations with rising demand. The numbers for the Winter survey are comparable to the results of the previous four quarterly surveys, which generally have indicated that the Regional Victoria market jurisdiction has passed its peak but remains sturdy.

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This market was at its strongest throughout 2018, when three consecutive quarterly surveys had 47, 47 and 51 locations with rising sales activity.

But, as our research regularly demonstrates, real estate prices often remain strong long after the peak of the market in terms of sales activity.

This is shown by the many individual suburbs and towns throughout Regional Victoria which have recorded median price growth above 10% in the past 12 months.

Ballarat has been particularly outstanding, with price growth headed by the suburbs of Ballarat Central (up 24%) and Lake Wendouree (23%). Brown Hills, Redan, Alfredton and Sebastopol have all increased between 10% and 12%. Other Ballarat suburbs have increased 7-8%.

The best performers in Geelong have been Drysdale (19%) and Bell Park (10%), while growth in Bendigo has been led by East Bendigo (21%).

But growth markets have been spread widely throughout the state, including Irymple (27%), Tatura (23%), Nagambie (19%) and Euroa (18%).

Other which have risen by between 10% and 14% include Apollo Bay, Portland, Woodend, Churchill, Daylesford and Morwell.

There are numerous locations throughout Regional Victoria which have delivered annual growth of 7-8-9%.

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In terms of locations with rising sales activity, which is a pointer to future price growth, the outstanding LGAs are Geelong and Bendigo.

The City of Greater Geelong has provided strong growth markets for the past three years and continues to show resilience. It benefits from its ability to provide an affordable alternative to Melbourne, underpinned by a strong local economy and good links to the nearby capital city.

In our Winter survey we have identified seven growth suburbs and four consistency suburbs, a good result in difficult times. There are also 15 suburbs in Greater Geelong classified as plateau markets. 

Bendigo has five growth markets and two consistency ones, in addition to nine plateau markets. This important regional city is benefiting from growing interest from Melbourne buyers and also investors from other parts of Australia.

Bendigo is behind Ballarat in the market cycle so we think has more upside, looking to the future. Ballarat has been a great performer in the past 2-3 years, as the price growth figures show, but is past its peak, with only one suburb remaining with growing sales activity.

The other standout is Latrobe City, where Morwell, Newborough and /Traralgon are all growth locations, while Moe and Churchill are consistency markets.

Other growth markets across the state include Ararat, Benalla, Castlemaine, Gisborne, Romsey, Cobram, Horsham, Mildura, Wonthaggi and Mooroopna.

Terry Ryder is the founder of hotspotting.com.au

<a href="https://mailto:ryder@hotspotting.com.au">ryder@hotspotting.com.au</a>

twitter.com/hotspotting
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Ballarat leading the regional Victorian house price boom: Hotspotting's Terry Ryder

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EXPERT OBSERVER
Adelaide is challenging Canberra as the most consistent market in capital city Australia. It keeps delivering good sales activity and above-average results on house prices – and continues to be our most under-rated market.
You’d never know any of this, as real estate consumers, because of the way mainstream media reports real estate – a focus on median price data to the exclusion of all other market barometers, sweeping generalisations which often discuss Australia as a single market, an obsession with Sydney and Melbourne as the only markets of importance, an annoying tendency to zero in on negatives, and a host of other problems.
Media seldom bothers to discuss Adelaide and when it gets the occasional brief mention it’s usually a generalised “Adelaide prices grew only 1% in the past year” or “the median house price for Adelaide fell 0.3% in the latest quarter”.
This tells us nothing of value – and disguises the multiplicity of scenarios playing out in the markets of the South Australia capital city.
So, for something with a little more depth, that tells you something that actually has value, consider the following:
In the five years Hotspotting has been conducting quarterly surveys of sales activity and price trends, Adelaide has never delivered a poor result. Most cities have had peaks and troughs in that time, but Adelaide just keeps on producing steady markets with consistent demand. 
Seven out of ten Adelaide suburbs have experienced growth in their median house prices in the past 12 months, many of them with rises above 5%. 
The list of suburbs with growth above 15% is dominated by top-end locations, a positive sign for the market overall, which we believe is poised for a significant growth phase.
Hotspotting’s Winter survey has identified 64 Adelaide suburbs with rising sales momentum, the second highest quarterly result for the city since we started the surveys. Over the past couple of years, the number of growth suburbs has been 45, 58, 61, 71, 60, 62 and 64.
Adelaide continues to rank well ahead of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, as well as the recovering Perth market, in terms of the number of growth suburbs – and ahead of most state regional jurisdictions (where many of the strong growth markets are found at present).
There are 10 Local Government Areas across the Adelaide metropolitan area with three or more suburbs with upwardly-mobile markets.
The Marion LGA, a middle-market area in the south-west of Adelaide which has been a market leader for the past 18 months, is once again a standout – one that ranks nationally. It has nine suburbs with rising sales patterns, including Ascot Park, Edwardstown, Glengowrie, Hallett Cove, Marion, O’Halloran Hill and Seacombe Gardens.
The Charles Sturt LGA, which extends north-west from central Adelaide out to the beach areas, is close behind with eight rising suburbs. They include inner-city Brompton (where quarterly sales have been 23, 32, 38 and 50) as well as middle-market suburbs like Findon, Seaton, Flinders Park (quarterly sales 22, 25, 25, 32, 35 and 38), Woodville South and Fulham Gardens. Henley Beach and West Beach also have growth momentum.
Port Adelaide Enfield continues to be a leading precinct, with seven growth suburbs including Croydon Park, Dernancourt, Greenacres, North Haven, Rosewater and Royal Park.
Onkaparinga, which always features in our Adelaide analysis, also has seven suburbs with growth momentum – including Aldinga Beach (where quarterly sales have been 54, 63, 67 and 70), Christies Beach, Hackham, Happy Valley, Old Reynella and Seaford.
Six municipalities have between three and five rising markets each: the Burnside, Holdfast Bay, Mitcham, Salisbury, Unley and West Torrens LGAs.
While sources such as CoreLogic and SQM Research often report annual growth of only 1-2% in Adelaide house prices, these generalised figures disguise individual areas which have done better. Our suburb-by-suburb analysis shows that 70% of Adelaide suburbs have median house prices higher than a year ago - and almost half of those have grown by more than 5%.
Of the 189 Adelaide suburban markets analysed, 54 have grown 5% or more and 64 have increased by less than 5%. There are only 17 suburbs in the Adelaide metropolitan area where median house prices have fallen by more than 5%.
Many of the suburbs with the highest annual growth are towards the upper end of the Adelaide market, headed by North Adelaide (up 29% to $1,075,000), Somerton Park (up 27% to $955,000), Unley (up 14% to $990,000) and Henley Beach South (up 15% to $985,000). Aldgate and Beulah Park, with median house prices in the $800,000s, have both risen 15-16% in the past 12 months.
But there is strong growth also in other price ranges, including Mansfield Park (up 20% to $405,000), Elizabeth North (up 18% to $180,000), Underdale (up 16% to $665,000) and Broadview (up 15% to $570,000).
 
Terry Ryder is the founder of hotspotting.com.au
<a href="https://mailto:ryder@hotspotting.com.au">ryder@hotspotting.com.au</a>
twitter.com/hotspotting
 
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Adelaide challenging Canberra as Australia's most consistent property market: Hotspotting's Terry Ryder

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EXPERT OBSERVER
This week I’m speaking at a seminar for real estate consumers in Canberra to talk about opportunities in the national capital.
I’ve just completed a suburb-by-suburb analysis on Canberra for the Price Predictor Index and have found that this market is strengthening. 
I’ve examined price data since the start of this century and I note that while Canberra is only a short distance from Sydney, usually its property market is doing something quite different to Sydney’s.
Canberra didn’t follow Sydney into a major property boom and now that Sydney is falling, Canberra is steadily on the rise. This, my research tells me, is situation normal.
Right now, Canberra has more growth markets than at any time since Hotspotting began its quarterly location-by-location surveys four years ago. The norm now in Canberra is suburbs where median prices have grown by more than 5% in the past 12 months, while only a handful have falling prices.
In this latest survey, I’ve have identified 26 suburbs where demand is rising, as well as 37 others where demand is steady and consistent. Unlike Sydney, the Canberra market has no suburbs classified as declining markets or as danger markets.
It is undoubtedly one of the steadiest markets in the nation. Indeed, I regard Canberra as the strongest real estate economy in capital city Australia. 
The ACT is consistently ranked No.3 by CommSec in its quarterly State of the States report, which means that as an economy it ranks ahead of all states/territories except Victoria and NSW. It ranks first in several areas, including dwelling construction and housing finance. 
The latest ABS data shows the ACT ranks first in the nation on population (jointly with Victoria), rising 2.2% in FY2018. Vacancies are around 0.9% (only Hobart has lower vacancies among the capital cities), rents are rising faster than anywhere else and there is evidence of solid price growth. Many suburbs have recorded double-digit growth in their median house prices in the past 12 months and others have grown 7-8-9%.
Some of the recent forecasts from credible analysts suggest Canberra will lead the capital cities on property price growth. Moody’s Analytics, for example, is predicting solid price growth for Canberra this year and in 2020, both for houses and for apartments.
The results of our Autumn 2019 survey support that optimism. Since the start of 2015, demand has been trending upwards in Canberra. It hasn’t been a dramatic rise but over four years the graph depicting demand in the market has trended north – to the point where there is now a record number of suburbs with rising sales activity.
And the price data supports that. Our suburb-by-suburb analysis has identified 31 suburbs where median prices have risen by at least 5% in the past 12 months, and 22 others where prices are growing but by less than 5%. But there are only six suburbs where median prices have fallen by more than 5%.
There are 13 suburbs which have recorded double-digit growth in their median prices and these market leaders are spread across the Canberra metro area. 
But the Inner North precinct is the market leader on price growth. The median house price for Ainslie is up 34%, the median unit price for Watson has risen 30%, the unit median for Dickson is up 21%, while the median house price for O’Connor is up 20%.
The upper end of the Canberra market is going well. Markets with double-digit price growth in the past 12 months include Ainslie (up 34%), Dickson (up 10%), Garran (up 13%), Lyons (up 10%) and O’Connor (up 20%) – all suburbs with median house prices above $850,000. Suburbs in that market with price rises between 5% and 10% include Curtin, Deakin, Hughes, Narrabunda and Nicholls. 
In terms of sales activity, strong markets are found right across the ACT. As we often find, the strongest demand is in the northern suburbs, with Belconnen the leading district with six growth suburbs, followed closely by nearby Gungahlin which has five suburbs with rising demand.
 
 
Terry Ryder is the founder of hotspotting.com.au
<a href="https://mailto:ryder@hotspotting.com.au">ryder@hotspotting.com.au</a>
twitter.com/hotspotting
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Terry Ryder

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