While Tasmania’s housing market is rising, growth in its capital city Hobart has been stalled.

Citing property website Hotspotting, news.com.au reported that sales activity in Hobart had gradually declined. Hotspotting's director Terry Ryder said that this did not come as a surprise because there were “early signs” that suggested the weakening of Australia’s hottest capital city’s market.

He highlighted that this is the usual pattern in “up-cycles,” saying “following a boom and then a tapering off in a capital city market, regional areas can catch a ripple effect and start their own growth cycle.”

This idea coincided with the data from the Winter 2018 Price Predictor Index, where a number of Tasmanian areas with growing sales activity were recorded to have dropped from the peak of 36 in Spring 2017 to 26 in Summer 2018 and to 24 in the Winter 2018.

“Quarterly sales numbers [in Tasmania] have declined gradually since then, though they remain above the pre-boom levels. Much of the recent moderation has been experienced in Hobart while some regional markets have recently burst to life,” Ryder noted.

Rider also stated that price growth is associated to consistent increase in number of transactions.

Following this train of thought, the report identified Launceston’s Kings Meadow, Newstead, Prospect Vale, Ravenswood and Youngtown as “growth subs” with affordability as main driver.

More importantly, though, Tasmanian market had seen hikes of the smaller centres in the north. Sales activity on Devonport, East Devonport, Burnie and Park Grove trended higher.

In the REIT June quarterly report, Tasmania’s record total value of sales in a three-month span was logged at $1.078 billion.

 

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