Urban Seed continue our in depth look at the Albury Wodonga region and this week we review the main data sets in comparison to the other main regional centres in Victoria and the Australian capital cities.
Median Price
Albury and Wodonga still have some very affordable locations when compared to the other major regional centres and capital cities. Wodonga is especially affordable with a median price of $343,000 being 101% lower than Geelong, 58% lower than Ballarat and 26% lower than Bendigo.
Sydney has a whopping 187% higher median and Melbourne 128% higher.
Albury’s median price is $547,500 and many of the packages available in the region are priced in the early $400,000’s for larger 4 bedroom floor plans. For those chasing cash flow, Dual Key living can be delivered at circa $500,000.
| Capital Growth – 12 months | Capital Growth – Decade pa | Median Price – House | |
| Albury | 7.00% | 4.10% | $ 547,500.00 |
| Wodonga | -0.50% | 1.40% | $ 343,000.00 |
| Bendigo | 7.00% | 3.70% | $ 432,500.00 |
| Ballarat | 24.00% | 6.00% | $ 542,500.00 |
| Geelong | -6.00% | 4.20% | $ 690,000.00 |
| Melbourne | 5.90% | 3.30% | $ 781,888.00 |
| Sydney | 9.80% | 4.90% | $ 985,723.00 |
| Brisbane | 3.50% | 1.00% | $ 557,969.00 |
| Perth | -2.00% | -1.80% | $ 461,891.00 |
| Adelaide | 2.70% | 1.30% | $ 480,972.00 |
Capital Growth
Albury has been one of Australia’s leading towns for capital growth over the last 10 years. Out of the Victorian regional centres only Ballarat and Geelong have had better median growth in that period.
Interestingly Albury also performed better than all the major capital cities but Sydney over that period. Perth had negative growth with Brisbane and Adelaide recording growth at under the inflation rate (negative real growth).
Vacancy
Regional centres have performed well in terms of vacancy for some time now but with COVID disproportionately affecting cities we expect the vacancy rate to tighter even further in regional centres.
Wodonga 0.1% and Albury 0.5% have lower vacancy than all other Victorian regional centres. Bendigo, Ballarat and Geelong all have very tight rental markets as well.
| Yield | Vacancy rate | |
| Albury | 3.40% | 0.50% |
| Wodonga | 5.50% | 0.10% |
| Bendigo | 4.20% | 1.50% |
| Ballarat | 4.06% | 1.40% |
| Geelong | 3.74% | 1.40% |
| Melbourne | 2.90% | 3.10% |
| Sydney | 2.70% | 3.60% |
| Brisbane | 4.20% | 2.20% |
| Perth | 4.30% | 1.30% |
| Adelaide | 4.30% | 0.90% |
Compare that to the major cities of Melbourne and Sydney who are both over 3% and Brisbane 2.2% and you can see the difference. Perth and Adelaide who have had not felt the impact of COVID as strongly as Sydney and Melbourne are also very tight at 1.3% and 0.9% respectively.
Yields remain strong in Albury Wodonga too. The packages available now are offering over 5% yields for a 4 bedroom home and north of 6% yields for dual key homes. This provides positive cashflow on a 100% lend + costs for most investors.
You can see why we are so excited by the potential of the Albury Wodonga region and with the modernisation of our economy including remote work and online shopping there is no reason why regional centres like Albury Wodonga won’t continue to grow into the future.
Is this the end of capital growth for the major cities of Australia? Of course not, but these regional centres can no longer be overlooked and with strong yields, capital growth and lower entry pricing its no wonder more and more investors are considering Albury Wodonga.
Check out last weeks blog with more data on Albury Wodonga here.