Residents of once-sleepy West Australian towns say interest in their communities is surging as people priced out of major cities search for a place to live.

The demand has led to a boom in house prices and some properties in some areas are being snapped up before public viewings.

Margaret River and Denmark have always attracted city buyers, but now less touristy towns such as Augusta in the South West and Mount Barker In the Great Southern are in the midst of a buying frenzy.

Residents say there is a vibrancy and optimism in areas that have been languishing for decades as people leave for Albany or Perth.

Lisa and Ben Newbury bought their 50-acre lifestyle block in Mount Barker, 50 kilometres from the South Coast, in 2020.

“Ben grew up on a farm, so when we had Matilda and [were] living in Karratha, we were hoping to move to a rural block for the kids and to be closer to family,” Ms Newbury said.

“We started looking in the Great Southern and Mount Barker was much better value for money for what we could get compared to other places.

Ms Newbury said she and her husband had noticed a change in the community since they arrived.

“The demographic over the two years that we’ve lived here seems to be shifting,” she said.

“Younger families are moving to Mount Barker … which has been really nice.”

City growth outpaced

Property prices in Mount Barker grew by 23 per cent in the year to December 2023 and price increases there – along with a number of regional towns – outpaced Perth and many other Australian capital cities last year.

The highest growth in regional WA was seen in Augusta, where asking prices increased by more than 35 per cent.

Housing analyst Core Logic Australia said there had been extreme demand for housing in the years since the start of the pandemic.

Head of research Eliza Owen said WA was starting to record an upswing in migration.

The state recorded a influx of 62,000 people in the year to June 2023.

‘”It’s basically a shift from more people leaving the state to more people entering the state,” Ms Owen said.

“When you have a sudden surge in housing demand, supply takes a while to adjust … because houses aren’t completed as quickly as people can flow across borders.”

Unaffordable for many

Ms Owen said  the surge had created a spillover in housing demand that was flowing into rural areas.

“It’s something we’ve seen in other parts of the country, where even major regional centres hit a point where they become too unaffordable, maybe even for people who’ve been in those regional centres for a longer period of time, and they start to look further afield,” she said.

Mount Barker real estate agent Kim Crofts said he noticed a huge change in the amount of interest in the town.

“There’s a big demand because people just really want to get out of the city, and also they’re coming down from up north,” he said.

Mr Crofts said properties were not spending much time on the market.