This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
PRICES rose across the board in Western Australia over the first month of 2024, while active listings remained very low.
According to REIWA, both house and unit sale prices were up in January, up 1.7% to a median price of $600,000 and 0.5% to $410,000 respectively.
Compared to the same time in 2023, house prices were up 9.9% and unit prices were up 2.2%.
Sales on the other hand have been unremarkable over the first month of the year, dropping 14.1% on December 2023 levels and down 20.3% on this time last year.
“January is usually a quieter month, and sales were very low in the first couple of weeks of the month, with many people enjoying holidays rather than looking at property,” said Cath Hart, CEO at REIWA.
“However sales activity and the number of new listings rose towards the end of the month. Last year sales in most of the price brackets bounced back to around pre-Christmas levels by mid-February and we’re likely to see that again this year.”
Active listings were near record lows at 3,738 at the end of January, up 2.5% for the month and dropping 46.2% from the same time last year.
“Residential property in Perth is being both listed and sold above the five-year average, however the sheer speed of sales is keeping the number of properties available on www.reiwa.com (active listings) at historically low levels,” added Hart.
Houses sold faster in January, at a median of nine days compared to 10 days in December and 29 days this time last year.
Units were also being snapped up quickly over the month, recording a median of 13 days in January, compared with 43 days 12 months ago.
Rents were also on the rise, hitting $615 per week or 2.5% higher than in December and 18.3% higher than a year ago.
For houses, the median weekly rent rose to $640, up 3.2% month-on-month and 16.4% higher than January 2023.
With the median unit rent up 1.8% over the month and 20.8% over the year to $580 per week.
“There is no doubt this is a very challenging market for tenants and will continue to be so for some time,” said Hart.
There were 1,913 properties available for rent on www.reiwa.com at the end of January, a healthy boost of 26% on December and 2.1% on the same time last year.
“This is positive news for tenants looking for a property, but we’d want to see several months of increasing listings and a consistent rise in the vacancy rate before calling a change in the rental market,” added Hart.
“There were signs of improvement mid-last year, with listings and the vacancy rate rising, but the market tightened again towards the end of the year. What we are starting to see is a change in household sizes in response to the market.”
“While COVID saw the average number of tenants per household decline as people sought their own space, the current situation is seeing household sizes increase as tenants join forces to deal with rising rent prices and the difficulty in finding a home.”
