In August, reiwa.com data shows it took a median of 21 days to lease aproperty in Greater Perth which is 13 days less than the same time last year making it the quickest time to lease since the construction phase of the lastmining boom in February 2015.
Perth rental market
REIWA President Damian Collins said strong demand inthe rental market continued into August which recorded improvements to themedian rent price, listings volumes and days to lease.
From an individual suburb level, Maddington was thefastest suburb to lease in August, taking a median of seven days to lease,which was closely followed by Armadale with nine days, Coolbellup and Wanneroowith 10 days, and Secret Harbour with 11 days, Mr Collins said.
Median rent
The median rent has remained stable at $360, however houses increased$10 per week to $380 and with Perths vacancy rate sitting at 1.6 per cent, wecan expect to see continued upward pressure on rents in the coming months.
A closer look at the data shows four out of five Perthsuburbs experienced an improved or stabilised median rent price, with Perth,Ellenbrook, Hamilton Hill, Bentley and Scarborough the top five performers.
Rental listings and activity
The high demand for rentals has seen rental stock onreiwa.com fall 10 per cent on July, with 3,205 properties for rent on reiwa.comat the end of August and based on present levels of enquiry we expect stocklevels to decline further in September, Mr Collins said.
Investors in the market
Feedback from our members on the ground is that there is still only alimited number of investors in the market looking to buy investment property.
Its important that we return confidence to investors and one way the StateGovernment can lead is to significantly reduce the number of properties subjectto the residential tenancies COVID-19 legislation. Unless we get investors confidentenough to get into the market, the rental shortage will only get worse.
Perth residential sales market
CoreLogics latest home value index shows dwellingvalues in Perth stabilised in August.
Median sale price
Mr Collins said although overall prices had remainedstable in the Perth region, reiwa.com data shows 45 per cent of suburbsexperienced an increase in median sale price.
Kelmscott saw the biggest increase to its median inAugust with a 5.4 per cent increase to $320,000, which was followed by Riverton(up 3.9 per cent), Duncraig (up 3.7 per cent), Piara Waters (up 3.6 per cent),and Carramar (up 3.4 per cent), Mr Collins said.
Interestingly, three of the top five suburbs had a median sale priceunder Perths median of $475,000 and suggests people are taking advantage ofproperties in Perth that are priced at the lower end.
Sales listings
Listings for sale were also down in August with only10,627 properties for sale on reiwa.com, which is 1.2 per cent lower than Julyand 23.2 per cent lower than this time last year.
Sales activity
In the last few months, sales activity has beenparticularly strong due to the various government bonus schemes, so it is onlynatural as the interest around the stimulus eased, we saw activity in August decreasecompared to July, Mr Collins said.
The suburbs that saw the biggest improvement in saleswere Stirling, Shenton Park, Fremantle, Bayswater and Iluka.
It certainly appears that Greater Perth, and in facta large part of Western Australia, has escaped the COVID-19 induced propertyslowdown. Given the high levels of demand and limited supply, we may even seeprices rise later in 2020.
