Perth Property Leading National Capital Gain

Data house Core Logic’s latest housing price index figures reveal what many property commentators expected; that Perth property values now lead the nation in terms of capital gain over the past twelve months.

Off the back of more moderate property value increases comparative to east coast cities during the property rush of early to mid-2020, Perth was better positioned to weather the storm of 12 successive interest rates rises in fifteen months and the resulting impact on property values. For the twelve months ending June 2023, Perth is the only capital city to record annual growth with dwelling values up 2.5 percent and moving 2.8 percent for the quarter.

Somewhat remarkably, Sydney’s housing values increased an impressive 4.9 percent in the June quarter off a very high base, but have pulled back 8.0 percent from its peak prices in January 2022. Across the year Melbourne is off 5.7 percent, Brisbane backed off 8.2 percent and Hobart has declined the most by 12.7 percent. Overall, evidence is emerging that Australia’s property values are trending back towards a growth phase with almost every capital returning positive gains last month and quarter.

Property values are rising despite a high inflationary environment, higher interest rates and low business confidence off the back of increased immigration levels and low listing supply fuelling demand. Sales volumes have decreased across the year, down 20.3 percent nationally, with the three big east coast capitals’ transaction levels tracking below the national average. Perth’s property sales activity has only declined 3.2 percent last year, the lowest fall in the nation.

The interplay between sales volumes, listing availability and property values provides useful insights into likely future market behaviour.  Listing stock continues to trend downwards, dropping 13.2 percent from last year and 28.7 percent lower than the five-year average. Lack of housing supply is the key driver of property values in today’s market. In Perth, total listings are down a massive 30.3 percent compared to last year and new listings coming to market are off 18.7 percent.

With such short listing supply, population gains driving demand and relative affordability, Perth is well positioned for property price gains in the short to medium term.

Meanwhile, national rents look like they’ve peaked growing by 9.7 percent year-to-date, down from the twelve-month peak of 10.2 percent for the 2022 calendar year. REIWA reported an uptick in vacancy rates to 0.9 percent last month, some welcome relief for tenants looking for a home.

I see the biggest challenge for the housing market being the rate investors are selling their property assets, homes that provide rental housing. The decade average of investor property sales is 25 percent of all property sales. This has risen sharply since January to sit at 32.7 percent. Anti-landlord sentiment fuelled by the Greens and others for political purposes and higher interest rates is seriously damaging rental supply.