Dubbo's housing market has recorded a strong performance across a number of key areas in a sign it's weathering drought and other challenges, realtors suggest.
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The median house price sat at $375,000 at June, up 4.9 per cent in 12 months, the latest data from Core Logic shows.
Annual average growth across five years and 10 years both hovered at the 5 per cent mark.
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Rental return was at 4.8 per cent.
The Real Estate Institute of NSW (REINSW) Orana division cited the figures as they highlighted the market's performance.
While house prices in the nation's capital cities had been falling from September 2017 until recently and capturing significant attention, the REINSW Orana division told of Dubbo bucking the trend.
Division chairman Adam Wells said the Core Logic data showed a strong performance, particularly taking into account the past 12 months had seen drought, tightening of lending and uncertainty ahead of the federal election.
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He said the market had been able to weather all of that and digging down it told you something about "the structure and strength of the Dubbo economy".
Dubbo and other regional cities seemed to be doing well, compared with metropolitan centres, he said.
"So we're seeing investors, we're seeing homeowners moving to regional centres," he said.
Sydney house values rose by 0.2 per cent in July, and in Melbourne by 0.1 per cent, Core Logic data shows.
But despite the increases, Sydney house values were still down by 9.8 per cent over the past 12 months and in Melbourne by 10.7 per cent over the year.
The median house value in Sydney is $864,993 and in Melbourne it is $710,151.
"...when people have got that money to invest, there's more opportunity here [Dubbo], investors, not just locally but... more broadly from Sydney and those metropolitan areas are able to invest in Dubbo, where we're looking at average prices of $375,000," Mr Wells said.
"They're not even able to get anything as an investment in Sydney, units are $500,000 to $700,000..."
Realtors suggest not everyone knows Dubbo's market is not the same as that of Sydney and Melbourne.
"I think the people who are aware are the people who are already invested, are stakeholders in our community," Mr Wells said.
"The people who are investing for the first time or buying for the first time aren't aware of how positive it is here.
"So when we have people coming from Sydney they may have just seen a price and said 'is that what it is there, that's a pretty good return', so their eyes are opened once they see what's happening."
Realtor of more than 40 years Bob Berry said he did not recall the 10-year growth in the median house price reaching 5 per cent.
"...for the past 10 years, it's always been a 4, 4.3," he said.
Faye Wheeler
I have been a journalist for more than a decade and in that time I have been keeping Daily Liberal readers up to date about issues affecting them and what's happening in their community. Throughout my career I have covered a range of rounds and most recently I have been focusing on the business round.
I have been a journalist for more than a decade and in that time I have been keeping Daily Liberal readers up to date about issues affecting them and what's happening in their community. Throughout my career I have covered a range of rounds and most recently I have been focusing on the business round.
