Western Australia 'to see new boom'

The economic prospects for Western Australia are looking up again, it has been claimed, something that could boost property prices there.

Speaking about the mood a year ago when the financial crisis was at its worst, professor of economic policy at Curtin University in Perth Peter Kenyon said there was much "doom and gloom", the Daily Telegraph reports.

He added: "Everybody was talking about it being worse than the Great Depression, but consumer confidence is back, business confidence is back and interstate and overseas migration continues."

Professor Kenyon highlighted mining as being a major source of growth in the state, with base metals rising in price again.

State capital Perth is now seeing house prices increasing for the first time in 18 months, the paper noted.

The Australian property market will benefit from the extra stability provide by this month's 0.25 per cent increase in the cash rate by the Reserve Bank of Australia, Brian White, the chairman of real estate firm Ray White, said recently.