Geraldton’s Mt Tarcoola listed in top 100 suburbs in Australia for sales volume in quarter

Geraldton’s own Mt Tarcoola has been ranked in the top 100 suburbs in Australia for market strength, being one of only two regional WA suburbs to make the cut. The Hotspotting Price Predictor Index released its autumn report and detailed the top 100 supercharged suburbs in Australia based on sales volume. The index said while the South West was past its peak, the Mid West was strengthening. The Greater Geraldton area is showing improvement with three suburbs being classified as rising markets, including the popular and ever growing Mt Tarcoola, with a median house price of $385,000. The other two local “rising markets” were Tarcoola Beach (median of $425,000) and Waggrakine (median of $360,000). Mt Tarcoola’s steady growth can be seen in the quarterly sales over the past three years, going from 19 in 2021, 32 in 2022 to now 56 in the last quarter. Phil Sorgiovanni of Activewest Real Estate said the family friendliness of the suburb was what made it so popular. “Mt Tarcoola’s a very popular suburb, it’s close to the CBD, but not in the CBD,” he said. “It’s schools, the shopping centre’s not far from there … very family oriented type of place.” This is backed up by REIWA’s data for Mt Tarcoola, with the highest age range of residents being between 0-18 years old and households with children making up 48 per cent of the suburb. With a median house price of $385,000, investors have high interest in the area as well. “Investors like it as well … if they have something there then they know someone is going to lease it pretty quickly, and generally for a reasonably fair dollar,” Mr Sorgiovanni said. “It represents good value to both an investor and also a tenant … it works well for both sides.” According to REIWA figures, houses in Mt Tarcoola do not last very long on the market with an average of 29 days. Its median rental price is $420 a week. While Mt Tarcoola was the singled out suburb in the index, all of the Greater Geraldton area has been doing increasingly well and act in a similar way. “We are big enough to attract different suburbs and different investors, but small enough that the whole area moves at the same time” Mr Sorgiovanni said. With REIWA’s sales for the 12 months to March in Mt Tarcoola showing to be up 2.6 per cent, most of the surrounding areas have also shown an increase, with Geraldton up 4.8 per cent, Tarcoola Beach up 3 per cent and Karloo up 22.9 per cent.