Knowledge Hub

Article by: Kim Macdonald

Source: The West Australian

October 16, 2020

Perth property is selling in less than a fortnight in popular pockets of Perth — and homes in some suburbs are selling five times faster than they were last year.

Defying expectations of a sluggish market until a COVID-19 vaccine is discovered, Subiaco and Kingsley are both leading the way on quick sales.

The two suburbs last month enjoyed the shortest median sales time of only 12 days — which is more than twice as fast as the 28-day median it took to sell a property in those suburbs in the same period last year.

Real estate agents and developers have widely credited the flood of West Australians returning home from overseas and abroad for much of the interest in Perth property, with reports some are buying properties unseen from hotel quarantine.

A better-than-expected recovery from the pandemic since the State ended its lockdown has also contributed to relatively strong property confidence.

The suburb of Swan View has experienced the biggest change over the past year, with homes selling in a median 15 days, or 4.8 times faster than the 72-day median in September 2019.

Real Estate Institute of WA president Damian Collins said the top 10 fastest-selling suburbs were well under the 28-day median in the metropolitan area.

This include Rivervale, Darch and Woodvale, which all had a 14-day median. Beechboro, Coolbellup and Mt Hawthorn took 15 days and Greenwood had a 16-day median.

“In September there was a 20 per cent decrease in the number of properties for sale on reiwa.com compared to the previous year,” he said.

“This combined with low interest rates and a return to stronger population growth explains why we are seeing houses sell at a quicker rate.”

A separate report released yesterday by Corelogic showed the extremes of WA’s property market are once again at play, with Perth experiencing the highest annual growth in rent and the lowest number of investors of all the major cities.

The report said rents grew 4.8 per cent in Perth over the past year, but there were only 17 per cent of investors in the WA market, compared with 20 to 27 per cent in NSW, Victoria and Queensland.