Real estate: Desert Springs up, Larapinta down

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2503 real estate image 450By ERWIN CHLANDA
 
There were some significant fluctuations in median house prices in the December 2017 quarter, according to the report issued four times a year by Doug Fraser, Managing Director of LJ Hooker in Alice Springs.
 
Compared to the preceding quarter there was a whopping 28.7% drop in the price of Rural Area properties, reflected in nine sales, with the median price plummeting from $800,000 to $570,000.
 
In urban areas, prices in Desert Springs (10 sales, green circle) rose 12.2% but in Larapinta (11 sales, red circle) fell 12.9%.
 
Over the 98 house sales across town, described by Mr Fraser as a “significant increase” in the number of sales, there was a price increase of 1.37% with the median price now at at $480,000.
 
Median prices of units across town fared much more poorly with a drop of 17.1% reflected in 47 sales, with the median price slipping from $307,500 to $255,000.
 
Mr Fraser attributes that “to the large number of the Stephens Road units, 16 in total, which were all at the lower end of the price scale”.
 
In the year ending June 2017, median house prices dropped 4.12%, and units 8.9%, reports Mr Fraser.
 
Median house prices rose from $282,000 in 2006 to $485,000 in 2016, dropping back to $465,000 in 2017.
 
Median unit prices were $198,125 in 2006 and $305,000 in 2017, with the peak of $346,000 in 2011.
 
The fall from 2016 to 2017 was 8.9%. The biggest price increase for units, over a year, was in 2010, 27.4%.
 
Mr Fraser says sales numbers went up 26% for houses and 47% for units.
 
“House sale numbers were evenly spread throughout the town with Gillen recording the highest number with 16 followed by Braitling/Stuart and Araluen with 15 sales each,” says Mr Fraser.
 
“Desert Springs/Mt Johns recorded the highest number of unit sales with 19 which is mainly due to the sale of a number of the refurbished Stephens Road one bedroom apartments.
 
“There were a number of high end house sales with five properties recording prices over $800,000 including a house on Cavenagh Crescent for $1.3m, another two in the Golf Course for $955,000 and $822,000 respectively, a house in the rural area for $930,000 and another in Stirling Heights for $815,000.
 
“The highest price paid for a unit was $525,000 in Tmara Mara Circuit.”
 
Mr Fraser says there were a number of significant commercial and industrial sales: “Three adjoining blocks on Gap Road zoned “Tourist Commercial” totalling $4,510 sq. metres sold to the same purchaser for a total of $2,090,000.
 

“A first floor strata titled commercial unit in Gregory Terrace for $550,000 and a ground floor unit in the same complex for $1,078,000 to the same purchaser.”
 
Other sales:–
 
Š• A light industrial property in Crispe Street for $870,000.
 
Š • An industrial property in Hele Crescent for $945,000.
 
Š• A substantial industrial property in Power Street for $1.5m.
 
The South Edge residential subdivision had 20 sales for between $150,000 to $210,000 for the single dwelling residential blocks. There were also two land sales in Kilgariff for $172,500 each together with two established house sales for $445,000 and $580,000.
 
 
 

2 COMMENTS

  1. A whopping 28.7% drop in the price of Rural Area properties: Take a drive around our industrialised rural area and the reason for the fall in value is obvious.
    Lack of enforcement of planning regulations has allowed the trashing of our town’s rural area.

  2. Wow. Larapinta down. Who could have guessed.
    Ummm, just about anyone that lives in this town!
    For the last 10 to 15 years it has slowly become the Bornx of Alice. Just take a lovely drive around the suburb and I bet you roll your windows up and lock the doors!
    Council don’t care but because most of them live in ….
    Hint: the richy rich “other” suburb mentioned in the story title.

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