The supply of homes for sale across Perth has fallen to the lowest level in 30 years, with under 5000 homes now on the market.
The tight supply of stock helped push prices 1.3 per cent higher last month, with homes selling in just nine days on average.
According to the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia (REIWA) the median house price rose to $570,000 in September, which is 5.6 per cent higher than a year ago and 4.6 per cent higher than the previous record set in 2014-15.
While the median unit price remained stable at $400,000, it was 2.4 per cent lower than September 2022 and 2.9 per cent below the previous high of $412,000 set in 2021-22.
REIWA Chief Executive Officer Cath Hart said the fast-selling homes were all located in affordable areas, led by Dudley Park and Seville Grove (three days), Coodanup, Cooloongup and Secret Harbour (four days) and Armadale, Tapping, Butler, Caversham and Greenfields (five days).
“It’s interesting to see that, with the exception of Tapping, these suburbs have a median house price below the Perth median,” Ms Hart said.
“It suggests affordability is important and buyers are acting quickly when they see value.
“These suburbs also offer rental yields between 5 and 7 per cent, which make them very attractive to investors.”
For September, the top performing suburbs for house price growth were Halls Head (up 3.1 per cent to $570,000), Embleton (up 2.7 per cent to $620,000), Hillarys (up 2.5 per cent to $1,080,000), East Fremantle (up 2.5 per cent to $1,672,500), and Bassendean (up 2.1 per cent to $612,500).
While Westminster, Balcatta, Rivervale, Golden Bay and Doubleview were also among the top performers, recording growth of more than 1.4 per cent.
In good news for tenants, Perth’s median rent prices remained unchanged in September at $580 per week.
The median rents for houses and units were also stable at $600 and $550 per week respectively.
“Stability is very welcome, but market conditions suggest more increases are likely in the coming months,” Ms Hart said.
“WA is experiencing strong demand and there is a limited supply of rentals available.
“The significant imbalance between supply and demand is putting pressure on prices and this is unlikely to change in the near future.”
According to REIWA, the suburbs that saw the most growth in their median rent price in September were Highgate (up 30 per cent to $665 per week), Inglewood (up 26 per cent to $630), Greenwood (up 21 per cent to $720), Wembley (up 20 per cent to $540), and Bentley (up 19 per cent to $540).
Ms Hart said there were 1653 properties available for rent at the end of September, a slight improvement on August, but 22.2 per cent lower than three months ago and 4.1 per cent lower than September 2022.
“Based on previous trends, we can expect listings to remain low for the remainder of the year,” Ms Hart said.
Ms Hart said while WA was one of the more affordable places in the country for both home buyers and renters, rising interest rates and rents had placed significant financial stress on households.
“The Reserve Bank of Australia’s decision to leave interest rates on hold will be welcomed by mortgage holders, but repayments on the average mortgage in WA have increased 48 per cent since rates started rising, meanwhile the median dwelling rent has increased 23 per cent,” she said.
“Supply is a significant issue facing the market and impacting affordability.
“We need to maintain a strong level of new home building starts and ensure we have a legislative environment that encourages investment to alleviate the gap between supply and demand that is driving house and rent prices to new records.”
