01 May 2020

The latest reiwa.com data has
shown that Perth’s property prices have held in April despite sales volume
dropping 40 per cent to 1,277 for the month.
Median sale price
REIWA President Damian
Collins said pleasingly we have seen another increase to the CoreLogic Hedonic
Home Value, which is up 0.2 per cent for the month, making it the sixth month
in a row to see the value increase or stabilise.
“With the current median
house price sitting at $477,000 it is positive to know that despite the current
economic conditions, sellers are not being forced to sell and lower their sales
price to do so,” Mr Collins said.
“Another positive for sellers
this month is that it is quicker to sell a house now than it was a year ago
with the median days to sell sitting at 65 compared to 77.”
Sales listings
From a property listings
perspective, in April listings for sale decreased five per cent with over
11,670 properties for sale on reiwa.com.
“The full impacts of COVID-19
on the property market are not known at this stage, however with listings
lowering five per cent, this demonstrates that there is not an influx of people
who are trying to sell their homes due to being in financial distress,” Mr
Collins said.
“The current initiatives by
the Federal and State Government are helping to ensure that homeowners are not
forced to sell their properties,”
Sales activity
Looking forward, the outlook
of the property market is contingent upon a speedy economic recovery, and we
anticipate sales activity picking back up.
“During the month we saw
weekly sales transactions sitting at a low of less than 300 per week, with the
exception of the last week which was over 430 transactions,” Mr Collins said.
“In order to keep this
momentum going and ensure that economic conditions improve, the Western
Australian Government may need to cut stamp duty and we ask the government to
consider short term changes to help incentivise buyers, as well as long term
tax reform removing stamp duty and replacing it with a broader based land tax system.”
Perth rental market
Perth’s
rental market has remained relatively stable again this month despite the
pandemic.
Median rent price
“This
month we saw Perth’s median rent lower slightly to $350 per week, however if we
break this down into units and houses, the unit median remained stable at $340
per week and the house median lowered only $5 to $375 per week.” Mr Collins
said.
Listings for rent and leasing activity
Listings
for rent were up four per cent in April with 5,624 listings for rent on reiwa.com.
“While
we saw a slight increase in listings, overall this is not a significant change.
This combined with leasing activity, which lowered 21 per cent for April,
demonstrates with the current restrictions on movement, people are staying put in
their homes,” Mr Collins said.
“Most
tenants are meeting their rental obligations. It is important for those who are
not struggling financially due to the impacts of coronavirus to still pay their
rent.”
More information
For a details breakdown of how the property market performed over the past week, view our Perth Market Snapshot graph.
Want to see how Perth performed in March? View Perth property market showed positive signs in March.