The two line graphs (blue for houses, red for units) show the Alice Springs median house and unit prices at the left-hand side (in thousands of dollars). The post graphs show, on the right hand side of the graph, the Number of houses sales (blue) and units (orange).
By ERWIN CHLANDA
In the December quarter 2018, Alice Springs median unit price increased by 2.3% to $327,500 and was 40.3% higher compared to December quarter 2017, according to the Department of Treasury and Finance.
But it says caution needs to be used when interpreting quarterly movements for regional markets: “The small size of these markets and low number of sales can lead to volatile results.”
The median weekly unit rent decreased by 1.3% in the quarter to $390, but increased by 4.7% compared to the same time in the previous year.
The sales volume for units decreased by 11.6% in the quarter and by 13.6% in annual terms to 38 sales.
In the December quarter 2018, the rental yield for a unit (red) was 6.2%, which is a 2.1 percentage point decrease in annual terms.
The median house price in Alice Springs increased by 0.1% to $475,000 in the December quarter 2018, and by 1.6% annually.
The median weekly asking rent for a house (blue) in Alice Springs decreased by 3.7% in the quarter, but increased by 2.0% annually to $520.
Alice Springs recorded the only annual increase in the median house rent of the regional centres in the NT.
The number of house sales in Alice Springs decreased by 7.6% to 61 sales in the December quarter 2018.
The rental yield for a house in Alice Springs was unchanged in annual terms at 5.7% in the December quarter 2018.
Somewhat safe to say that the December 2017 quarter is anomalous and likely due to the type of properties sold that reduced the median unit price, rather than a swift decline and equally swift recovery in the market.
The true story is that the median unit price has barely budged in a decade and assuming that the above data is not corrected for inflation, the prices have likely decreased by 20% in real terms.