Queensland’s Mackay-Isaac-Whitsunday coastal region has risen to the top of the non-metro property leaderboard, outperforming all other regional markets with 5.9% investment growth over the past 12 months, driven by growing local economy, and fuelled by high commodity prices and increasing mining activity.

The CoreLogic Quarterly Regional Market Report, which examined 25 of Australia’s largest non-capital city areas, also listed Bunbury in WA, Ballarat in Victoria, and Central West NSW as the best-performing regions of the country over the same span.

“Overall, our latest data points to an increase of value growth in regional markets, particularly those which are located adjacent to capital cities,” said Tim Lawless, head of research at CoreLogic.

“As people are priced out of certain capital cities, buyers now appear to be looking to these adjacent regions.

“Home owners in Sydney and Melbourne have seen a substantial rise in housing equity over recent years. Subsequently, we are seeing some evidence that these buyers are starting to look for holiday and investment properties in certain regional markets which is also providing an impetus for some of the value growth we are currently seeing.”

CoreLogic, on the other hand, listed the Illawarra region, 100 kilometres south of Sydney, as the worst-performing region in the country, with house values falling by 5.9 percent over the year to October.

Additionally, vendors are required on average to discount their homes by 6.4%. Homes in the current market took 58 days to sell, compared to only 43 days a year ago.

Sales volumes also dropped, with sales down by 5.4% over the year.