REIWA News - Market growth

Perth's preliminary median house price reached $470,000 in the March quarter, according to figures released today by the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia.

This represents growth of 2.2 per cent during the March quarter, lifting the new median price by $10,000 in the first three months of this year.

REIWA President Mr Rob Druitt, said the REIWA.Com House Price Measure showed that while prices were generally increasing across the board, prices growth had slowed.

"Our data indicates there was no price growth at all in a number of outer areas, with the strongest growth being recorded along the coastal regions of Joondalup (including Hillarys, Ocean Reef and Iluka), Canning (including Riverton and Wilson), and Cockburn (including South Lake, Hamilton Hill and Beeliar).

"As further sales evidence is received by the Institute later this month, we think it's likely it will show that some suburbs have experienced further corrections in their median price during the quarter as was experienced in the December quarter," he said.

REIWA data also shows that the number of metropolitan sales had increased by 15 per cent in the March quarter after the downturn that began this time last year.

Mr Druitt said that whilst Perth experienced a growth in sales in the March quarter, the stock of available listings continued to increase significantly during this period, rising by 21 per cent to 13,800 dwellings at the end of March.

"In general terms the outer areas experienced the highest rates of stock increase. This can probably be attributed to declining first home buyer and investor activity in lower priced areas, along with recently constructed new housing coming on to the market.

"The average number of selling days has risen to 55, up from 47 days in the December quarter," Mr Druitt said.

Mr Druitt said the ongoing demand for rental accommodation had also seen increases in median weekly rents.

"Interestingly, while there was no change to median rents for units and apartments which remain at $250 per week, median rents for houses rose by 3.7 per cent during the quarter.

"This represents a $10 increase to $280 per week for houses, lifting the overall metropolitan median rent to $270 per week," Mr Druitt said.

Once again the regions showed mixed results for the March quarter, with some areas growing and some slowing.

"The Mandurah market seems flat with the overall median price holding at around $450-$455,000, while Geraldton enjoyed good growth of around 3 per cent, higher than for Perth, and bringing its new median price to $360,000."

Mr Druitt said that while the sales sample size from Bunbury was not large, indications were that the region had a very modest drop of about $5,000 on its houses, to a median price of $385,000.

"REIWA's data up to the December quarter had indicated that the South West had generally shown a downturn in the December quarter whilst the rest of WA to the north & east had been showing continued strong growth on the back of the resources boom.

"Our preliminary March quarter data suggests something similar, with the South West remaining flat while areas to the north continue to show reasonable growth," Mr Druitt said.

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