New research identifies property hotspots in Australia

The Australian housing market currently has 602 property hot spots spread out across the country’s eight states, according to a new report.

All areas apart from Tasmania and South Australia appear at least once in the national Housing Report from the Housing Industry Association (HIA) with six top 20 in Victoria, five in Western Australia, four in New South Wales, two in Queensland and ACT and one in the Northern Territory.

Nationally, a hotspot is defined as a local area where population growth exceeds the national average and where the value of residential building work approved is in excess of $100 million. The final ranking of the hotspots is determined by their respective population growth rates.

‘A total of more than 220,000 new dwellings were commenced last year, so it’s no surprise there was a strong performance among housing hotspots across Australia,’ said HIA economist Diwa Hopkins.

Based on its performance during 2014/2015, ACT’s South West area was the country’s top hotspot yet again, with $216.5 million worth of new residential building approved and its population more than doubling.

In second place was Cranbourne East in Melbourne’s southeast, where the population increased by 32% and some $328.7 million worth of new residential building was approved and in third place was Cobbitty-Leppington in the southwest of Sydney.

This year’s hotspots report again identifies a set of areas where momentum remains very strong according to latest data. These areas are likely to perform well in next year’s rankings if the pattern of this year is anything to go by.

‘In the final analysis, the fact that 10 of the top 20 hotspots are located in New South Wales and Victoria speaks volumes. These two states have been the engines of the strong upturn in new home building over the last few years,’ Hopkins explained.

‘It is also encouraging to see Western Australia still perform strongly this time at the national level, considering the difficulties arising from the natural resources downturn,’ she added.