Sales growth continues to rise in Western Australia

With price declines experienced in major capital cities on the East Coast, it’s pleasing to see that once again Perth has seen growth, with CoreLogic’s latest home value index for dwelling values showing Perth increased 0.2 per cent in September.

Top suburbs

Breaking it down by individual Perth suburbs, Darlington saw the biggest increase to its median in September with a 4.9 per cent increase to $637,500. Following this was Armadale with a 4.7 per cent increase to $225,000 and Swan View which was up 4.5 per cent to $355,000.

Rounding out the top five suburbs to see an increase in median sale price is Rockingham with a 3.9 per cent increase to $370,000 and Padbury which was up three per cent to $517,750.

Of the top 10 suburbs to see an increase in median, six of them are below Perth’s median sale price of $475,000 and none of them were over the one million mark, which demonstrates first home buyers and trade up buyers have been more active in the market during September. 

Properties listed for sale

While it is clear that the West Australian property market is in recovery mode with the worst behind us, we will now have to deal with low levels of supply for some period of time with listings for sale in September decreasing 20 per cent compared to last year to sit at 10,656.

You may have also heard that WA is also in the midst of a rental shortage with the number of properties available to rent dropping below 3,000 in September, compared to 6,169 in September 2019. 

Why stock levels are low

There are many reasons why levels have dropped so low for both the rental and sales market. Firstly, WA is almost back to normal population growth rates, sitting at 1.5 per cent for the year to March 2020, a big improvement from the 0.6 per cent per annum only a few years ago.

The housing market is struggling to keep up from a demand and supply point of view and with net migration into WA at the best levels since 2014 before the pandemic, there will be additional pressure on housing demand once borders eventually reopen.

The building bonus scheme does help boost housing supply, however those who have chosen to build will be sitting in rentals over the next 18 months until their homes are built, which does not help us in the short-term. 

More information

With prices on the rise and record low interest rates, there has not been a better time in many years for investors and home buyers to enter the market.

To find out how the rest of the property market performed, view rental listings reach eight-year low.