This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
PERTH's median house price has declined marginally by 1% to $545,000 in the June quarter, according to REIWA.
On a positive note, REIWA president David Airey said first home buyers activity rebounded, ahead of the transfer duty changes which came into effect on 1 July.
“This probably had an influence on turnover during this period given that we saw strong sales activity in the $400,000 to $500,000 range,” he said.
There was little movement in unit prices, which is currently sitting at $449,500.
“However, in the REIWA analysis we include off-the-plan pre-sales that take some time to settle, so our figures indicate the median sale price for units and apartments lifting by 5% in the quarter to around $470,000,” Airey said.
Across Western Australia, turnover fell by 6% during the quarter, with 11,900 sales, continuing the downward trend since the March quarter of last year.
Airey said on current figures it looks like the June quarter results will put house sales in Perth at about 5% below the 15-year average, while in regional WA it is closer to 22%.
“REIWA data show that reported sales dropped across most of Perth, with the central area within 10km’s of the CBD experiencing the biggest drop of 6%. This contributed to the fall in the overall median due to the softening of sales in the $500,000 to $900,000 range.
“However, the western suburbs saw an increase in activity among homes selling for between $1million and $1.5 million, while the most notable drop in sales was seen through South Perth and Victoria Park with a slump of 31% in the quarter,”
“There were mixed results in outer regions of Perth, but an increase in sales activity was evident through the north coastal part of the City of Wanneroo.
“Most house price movements were a modest 1 or 2%, with the exception of 4% growth in the City of Canning and a 4% fall through the northern part of Joondalup and the southern part of Wanneroo,” he added.
While sales declined, the listings in Perth continued to climb, up 8% to 10,872 properties including a jump of 12% in blocks of land to 1,449 lots. The overall increase in listings is now up by almost 25% on the same time last year.
REIWA also found that days on market has moved up by 1 day to 57.
“As a consequence, the number of sellers reducing their asking price grew further to almost half, although the variance between asking prices and selling prices tightened a little to just over 5% in favour of the buyer,” Airey said.
Meanwhile Airey said the biggest change was rental accommodation.
“In the rental market the vacancy rate has increased to 4.2% while the median rent dropped $10 to $450 per week. The number of rental listings grew by 858 properties in the quarter taking the total to 5,824.
“This is a significant increase of 43% on the same time last year, while more current REIWA data shows this has since grown further to more than 6,000 properties by the middle of July,” Airey said.
Property Review
