Western Australia has again dominated the latest residential building hotspot report, with Victoria and New South Wales also strongly represented.
According to the HIA/ACI Population and Residential Building Hotspots Report, six of the top twenty hotspots were in Western Australia, followed by Victoria with five and New South Wales with four.
For a second consecutive year, the Australian Capital Territory was home to Australia’s number one building and population hotspot, in the territory’s South West area. Second place was the Northern Territory’s Palmerston South area. The ACT was also home to Australia’s number three hotspot, the suburb of Crace.
“The national new home building recovery gathered full steam last year, and this is evident in the Hotspots report, with the results much stronger than the previous year,” said HIA economist, Diwa Hopkins.
“This year’s Hotspots report also provides a Building Momentum shortlist which identifies a number of regions where further upward momentum in building activity is set to occur in 2015.
“Strong potential is evident for local areas in NSW in particular, while WA and Victoria also feature quite broadly. In contrast, the ACT does not feature on this shortlist, signalling that the experience of recent years – where a number of ACT areas have been strongly represented among the Nation’s Top 20 Hotspots – is unlikely to be replicated next year.”
Nationally, a “hotspot” is defined as a local area where population growth exceeds the national rate and where the value of residential building work approved is in excess of $100 million.
