This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
MARCH saw Perth’s median house sale price reach a new record high, climbing 2.5% to $620,000.
According to the latest data from REIWA, Perth’s median unit sale price was also up, growing 1.2% to $420,000.
“WA’s population continues to increase at a near record rates – up 3.3% to over 2.9 million in the year to September 2023, dwelling completions are well below what’s needed to house those additional households and as a result people are driven to the established homes market in order to put a roof over their heads,” said Cath Hart, CEO at REIWA.
“This creates strong competition for homes, which in turn pushes up prices. We’ve seen house prices increase 12.7% year-on-year, while unit prices are up 5.0%.”
The latest analysis also reveals the growing trend of investors from the eastern states paying premium for homes in Western Australia, though data supports that local buyers are still more likely to pay more to live in the state.
“Local buyers are often more emotional. They may have a preference for a certain suburb or fall in love with a home and be willing to pay a premium price. This is particularly common if they plan to live in the home for a long time; they consider paying more worthwhile,” added Hart.
Within WA, Yangebup saw the greatest house sale price growth over March, up 4% to $644,500, followed by Camillo up 3.5% to $445,000, Beeliar up 3.4% to $695,000, Mount Pleasant up 3.3% to $1,550,000 and Belmont up 3.2% to $590,000.
Over the month, the median time houses spent on the market was unchanged at eight days, which was five days faster than this time last year.
While units sold in a median of 10 days, one day lower than in the month before but 1 days faster than in March 2023.
“Such rapid turnover makes it very challenging for buyers and means they need to cover all bases in their search for a property. This includes signing up for property alerts on websites like www.reiwa.com, registering with agents in the area where they are looking to buy, and even engaging buyer’s agents to do the leg work for them,” said Hart.
“It’s also a challenge for sellers. While it may sound good to say my home sold in under a week, sellers then face the problem of finding somewhere to live, either to buy or rent.”
There were 3,654 active listings at the end of March, down 8.9% on February and 48.7% lower than a year ago.
“The number of new listings for January and February were slightly higher than 12 months ago and on par with the five-year average,” added Hart.
“New listings for March were lower than March 2023 and the five-year average, but this is very likely to be a reflection of Easter and school holidays falling at the end of the month and people delaying their decisions to sell for a few weeks.”
