Which suburbs still have property price growth?

Online lender Well Money has identified the top 20 suburbs where property prices are defying cooling markets.

Well Money (formerly Well Home Loans) has released its quarterly Well Money Green Shoots Report, which identifies the top 20 suburbs in Australia in the three months to July 2022 that showed the clearest signs of strong price growth.

The top 20 list includes 12 metro and eight regional locations spread around Western Australia (9), NSW (6), Queensland (4) and Victoria (1), mostly houses (15) and five units.

The suburbs which rounded out the list showed the strongest combination of inventory levels decreasing, the number of days on market decreasing and asking prices increasing all over the past three months.

Well Money CEO Scott Spencer (pictured) said the latest green shoots report identified housing markets that were bucking the property downturn trend.

“In every one of these suburbs, inventory levels and days on market have fallen over the past three months, which means conditions have moved in favour of sellers,” Spencer said. “As a result, vendors have increased asking prices in all but two of the suburbs, despite the fact the market is cooling in many parts of the country.”

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Spencer said these results showed that Australia was not one big housing market.

“There are actually hundreds of different markets spread around the eight states and territories,” he said. “Last year, most of these markets were experiencing price increases, however now many of them are experiencing price reductions.”

Spencer said the suburbs in this report looked set to grow in coming months.

“Demand is currently higher than supply in these areas which means buyers are being forced to compete hard,” he said.  “That sort of competitive tension is likely to generate increases in selling prices.”

Spencer said Well Money not only looked at what had happened in the past, but also analysed data and used leading indicators to look ahead to identify this list.

“When inventory levels are falling in a location, that’s a clear sign the pendulum is moving in the direction of vendors because stock levels are declining,” he said. “When days on market are falling, it suggests demand is increasing relative to supply. When inventory levels and days on market are both falling, it’s a clear sign that market forces are moving in favour of vendors – the bigger the fall, the more likely that is to be true.”

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Spencer said in this situation, vendors were likely to respond by raising their asking prices.

“In turn, this is likely to lead to higher selling prices,” he said. “That’s why inventory levels, days on market and to a lesser extent asking prices are such good leading indicators.”

The Top 20 suburbs that made the list are: