In good news for Perth tenants, rents held steady in April, while rental listings also started to increase.
According to The Real Estate Institute of Western Australia (REIWA) the median weekly dwelling and house rents remained at $650 per week at the end of April, unchanged from March.
While the median unit rent also held steady at $600 per week.
REIWA Chief Executive Officer Cath Hart said seeing rents flatline was great news for renters.
“In a constant climate of rising rents, this is very welcome news,” Ms Hart said.
“We do expect rents to continue to rise over 2024, but the rate of growth has been slowing and there are signs demand is easing at the higher end of the market.”
Rents across Perth have increased 20 per cent for units and 13 per cent for houses in the past 12 months.
The suburbs that saw the most growth in their median weekly dwelling rent in April were Subiaco (up 7.1 per cent to $750), Joondalup (up 6.7 per cent to $600), Aveley (up 3.8 per cent to $675), Spearwood (up 3.5 per cent to $600) and Southern River (up 3.5 per cent to $750).
In other good news, there were 2094 properties available for rent at the end of April, an increase of 13.2 per cent since March and 4.3 per cent higher than the same time last year.
While homes leased in a median of 16 days during April, one day slower than March, but unchanged from a year ago.
“Rental listings have been below 2000 for most of the last two years, so it’s very pleasing to see them increase,” Ms Hart said.
“We have seen them rise in the past few weeks and this could reflect new supply coming to the market.
“Our members are reporting some newly built homes owned by eastern states investors finally coming to the rental market.
“This is predominantly in outer-lying suburbs where there has been land available for development.
“And a large refurbishment project in Maylands was completed in March, adding over 100 apartments to the market.”
Meanwhile, the Perth sales market continued to see values increase, up 1.6 per cent on the $620,000 reported at the end of March to $630,000.
This was 14.5 per cent higher than April 2023.
The median unit sale price also rose over the month, increasing 2.7 per cent to $426,000.
“Unit prices were fairly stable throughout most of 2023, but in recent months we have seen price growth accelerate,” Ms Hart said.
“The median house price is already at a record high, but there is the potential this year for the median unit price to exceed its previous high of $450,000 set in 2014.”
The suburbs with the most median house price growth in April were Floreat (up 3.4 per cent to $1,810,000), Golden Bay (up 3.2 per cent to $545,000), Joondalup (up 2.8 per cent to $725,000), Lesmurdie (up 2.6 per cent to $800,000) and Scarborough (up 2.4 per cent to $1,024,000).
Orelia, Mount Lawley, Seville Grove, Beechboro and Girrawheen were also among the top performers, recording growth of 2.1 per cent or more over the month.
Houses sold in a median of eight days in April, unchanged from March and six days faster than April 2023.
Units sold in a median of 11 days, one day slower than March but 16 days faster than a year ago.
There were also 3636 active listings at the end of April, 1.3 per cent higher than March but 43.6 per cent lower than a year ago.
Ms Hart said total new listings coming to market declined slightly over April which was to be “expected”.
“Historically, new listings tend to fall in April and this is usually due to the number of public holidays and the school holidays,” she said.
“What we have seen in the past few months is an increase in new unit listings.
“This very likely reflects the rise in unit prices, with owners choosing to take advantage of long-awaited capital growth.”
