Two regions of Australia (The Australian Capital Territory and Victoria) were the stand-out building and population growth ‘Hotspots’ in Australia in 2010/11, according to the Housing Industry Association (HIA).

Victoria registered nine of the top twenty national Hotspots in 2010/11, whilst the performance of the ACT was equally impressive, claiming the number one Hotspot in the country ( Canberra City) plus number six spot. Western Australia had five Hotspots in the top twenty, Queensland had three, and the Northern Territory had one.

Dr Harley Dale, HIA Chief Economist, said: "The ACT and Victoria were the two strongest housing markets going into 2010/11. The prominence of these two regions in the latest Hotspots list highlighted their potential for further out-performance. This potential was realised with new home building activity in particular remaining the strongest in the country throughout 2010/11 and 2011/12."

Canberra was Australia’s top building and population Hotspot in 2010/11 with $131.7m of residential building work approved and a population growth rate of nearly 40%. In second place was Whittlesea North in Victoria with over $717m worth of residential building work approved and a population growth rate of 17.4%. Wyndham South was placed third with the value of residential building work approved hitting $441mn and the population growth rate at 14%. The top five list was rounded out by Griffin-Mango Hill in Queensland, followed by Cardinia-Pakenham in Victoria.

Dr Dale added: "There were ninety Hotspots around Australia in 2010/11, clearly demonstrating the potential for considerably higher levels of residential construction activity than is occurring.”
A ‘Hotspot’ is defined as a local area where population growth exceeds the national rate (which was 1.4% in the year to June 2011) and where the value of residential building work approved is in excess of AUS$100m.