Port Hedland rose as the top-performing regional centre in Western Australia over the past 12 months after it posted a whopping 54.7% annual growth in house prices.

Regional centres across the state reported solid gains in September, hitting a 19.9% annual gain, according to the latest data from CoreLogic and the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia (REIWA).

REIWA president Damian Collins said Port Hedland led the nine regional centres in terms of annual price gains. Homes in the centre are priced at $379,000.

"A number of factors have contributed to the strong growth in Port Hedland over the last year, such as the desire of mining companies to have a more localised workforce and the implementation of the WA Government's Voluntary Buy-Back Scheme in the West End, which gave residents the option to sell their property for a government-guaranteed market price," he said.

Geraldton and Broome also posted strong annual gains at 25.5% and 22.2%, respectively.

On a quarterly basis, Geraldton clocked the highest increase at 6.2%.

The median house prices in Broome and Port Hedland also grew compared to the previous quarter, up 5.4% and 5.1%, respectively.

"Price growth across regional WA is strong and even outperformed the Perth region for annual growth in the year to September 2021," Mr Collins said.

"REIWA anticipates regional WA's current growth cycle will continue through the remainder of 2021 and into 2022."

Over the quarter, listings declined in most regional centres, with Busselton recording the biggest drop at 20%.

Interestingly, the three best performers all reported increase in listings, up by as much as 15%.

The biggest jump in listings, however, was in Karratha at 17%.

"While competition for stock is still high, it's pleasing that more properties are coming to market across regional WA," Mr Collins said.

"A growing number of property owners recognise there is strong demand from buyers and are feeling motivated to sell."

The declining stock in most regional centres due to increasing competition among buyers has led to shorter selling days.

Esperance witnessed the most drastic decrease in median selling days from 49 days in June to 24 days over the past quarter.

"If you're a homeowner in Esperance thinking of selling, now would be a good time to act,” Mr Collins.

However, the fastest-selling homes are located in Busselton, where it only takes around 14 days to get a property sold. The centre even outperforms Perth selling days. 

Photo by Nao Takabayashi on Unsplash.