 | MEDIA RELEASE | |
| January 16, 2008 | Embargoed: 11.30 am (AEDT) | 1/2008 |
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HOUSING DEMAND GROWS STRONGLY IN REGIONAL WESTERN AUSTRALIA |
House prices in Broome, Karratha and Mandurah have more than tripled in the ten years to 2006, according to analysis by the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia.
Median house prices in Broome increased from $160,000 to $482,500 over the period. Karratha increased from $142,500 to $475,000 and Mandurah increased from $110,000 to $410,000, while Geraldton came close to a three-fold increase going from $98,000 to $275,000.
O\ther findings were:
- Regional Western Australia recorded increases of 20% and 39% in occupied and unoccupied dwellings respectively over the 10 years. Growth in unoccupied dwellings was mainly in traditional holiday areas of the state's south west in the Shires of Augusta-Margaret River and Busselton.
- Regional Western Australia (33%) had a similar proportion of fully owned occupied private dwellings than Perth (32%), but a greater proportion (33%) of rented dwellings than Perth (26%), with high levels of rented dwellings in the north of the state and low levels in the Wheatbelt.
Overseas Travel Patterns Change For Western Australia
Far more Western Australians are travelling overseas than ten years ago, according to analysis in today's release of Western Australian Statistical Indicators.The ABS found that 82% (264,437) more Western Australians travelled overseas in 2006 compared to 1996.
Holiday travel increased to Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia but fell to Indonesia after the Bali bombings in 2002 and 2005.
More Western Australians travelled to the United Kingdom and New Zealand to visit friends and relatives, while business travel rose to China, India and the United Arab Emirates.
The state's skills shortage attracted more workers from Singapore, New Zealand, Malaysia, the United Kingdom and Indonesia, while greater numbers of international students arrived from China, Korea, Singapore and Japan.
Further information is available in Western Australian Statistical Indicators(cat. no. 1367.5).
