Perth’s housing bust to housing boom

The Perth housing market is making a comeback after a long and deep decline, and experts say current market indicators could drive healthy price growth – but investors are cautious. Recent CoreLogic report shows Perth’s property market is continuing its steady growth trajectory with home values stepped up 0.3% in February this year.

“Perth was on track for another solid year of home price growth. Despite the strong market conditions, Perth still has the most affordable median house sale price of any capital in the country,” Damian Collins said, president of the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia.

Sydney and Melbourne median house sale prices currently sitting above $1 million, pushing the dream of homeownership out of reach for many home buyers. Luckily, owning your own home is still attainable for most people in Perth. Five years ago, the market was in “pretty miserable conditions related to oversupply from 2014 to 2015, which decimated the building industry,” explained Mr Collins. Looking for better employment opportunities, tradies exchanged their building site jobs, which paid around $80,000-100,000 a year, for mining jobs, which paid $140,000 a year, Mr Collins expounded.

But Perth’s longest and deepest slide could now be over because the market shows signs of growth during the pandemic. A lot of east coasters have an eye towards the west for lifestyle and employment opportunities, particularly trades. West Australia’s robust economy, low to almost zero COVID cases, and sparse lockdowns over the last two years are luring people to the resource state. With interstate and overseas migration expected to increase considerably once borders open, it is anticipated that there will be strong competition among buyers which will put downward pressure on listing stock.