Margie

Hi,

Can anyone give advice on the housing market in Perth just now?

Family there sent us a paper cutting from The West Australian paper dated 21.5.05, which quotes " Prices rise as Market shrinks". Less available housing therefore prices set to rise.

Has this really kicked in yet? Or is this a projection for near future?

We arrive on 17.8.05 and are renting until we find jobs and will then buy, so it could be a few months before we buy. Should we be concerned?

We are considering several areas, Hillary's, Ocean Reef, Gwelup, Karrinyup and Joondalup are the main ones. If anyone can comment on these with regards to housing I'd be glad to hear from you!

Looking for 4 bedrooms, 2/3 public rooms possibly a pool. Near good schools and amenities.

Cheers!

Margie

NKSK

Like any investment it is primarily an unknown. I'm still in the UK but follow the market fairly closely. The average of commentators projections seems to be further increases this year but certainly a slowing of recent increases.

The eastern cities seem to be stagnant or decreasing whereas Perth is playing catch up. The question I'm interested in is whether or not Perth will eventually hit the values of Brisbane (our second choice city)

Incidentally we are very much in the same position as yourself. But we are holding on to our UK property for another 12 months at least whilst we rent in perth - so we're faced with the possibility of our UK propoerty heading down in price and Perth properties heading skywards!

peppi

Im in a similar situ..sat in UK trying to sell the house as they seem on a slow downward slide(god I wish Id sold a year ago even thou I didnt have the visa) lost ten grand on my house here already... Landing in Perth 22nd Sept...want to buy a.s.a.p...but we are going to have to rent initially which is going to eat into another 6 months of price hikes in Perth as the least contract you can take on a rental is 6 months by the look of it...all scary stuff...and cant get on with it quick enough...People in Perth,just how much and quickly do they seem to be going up...?

Margie

Hi,

we,ve sold here, but hoped the capital we take would go down as a big chunk of the cost of a house and result in a smaller mortgage!

Just hope prices don't run away with themselves too fast!

I'd like an answer to your last question too!!

Best wishes, Margie

steveyp

Hi,
I don't buy it... I have been in Perth nearly 5 months and have been watching the market very closely. The papers sell a great deal of advertising dollars to home related advertisers, especially estate agents. so as far as they are concerned printing propaganda about the housing market increases keeps the party going a bit longer.
The Perth prices catching up with Eastern states thing.... that too is a myth, it is like saying Wales prices will catch up with London.
The market is healthy here in that there is lots of building going on, builders have raised their prices 20% as they have a little slice of the cake and also pass on their suppliers increases.
Land prices keep increasing as landowners try it on for a little bit more every release they make.
Look to the established housing and you will see houses sitting on the market for long periods and some being reduced, not rubbish stock but some very affordable and nice property.
I am not suggesting prices are falling either (not yet), although I would be happy to see it, but the 15% YOY increases are just not true any more.
From the amount of estate agents I have seen at recent auctions (most of which have been turned in) I would say they are worried about a market turn.

The fundementals are all wrong, rental yeilds are low or no existant here unless you bought an investment property years ago and recent tax changes meen negative gearing is less appealing.

Hillarys, Ocean Reef, Sorrento etc are my preferred areas, and I am waiting till 2007 to buy there.

Cheers!

sme

Why 2007 ?

Nosey Gillian

jensteve

One way we did it was by buying a property the owner wanted to rent back for 6 months while still renting ourselves. Meant we could buy into the housing market earlier which we found really good, get it back next week, YIPEE

Jenny

Larissa

Some houses are definately over priced and staying on the market longer, we have been watching them for a number of weeks. If you're objective and not too emotional about commiting to a house, you can try a low asking price and may get away with it. Trouble is when you have so many loaded migrants coming in who will pay top bucks just to get into the housing market, it overinflates the market and the agents will see you a mile off!
So try asking below the asking price range, here they will price a "between" price, say 300 - 315 K rather than just one price like in the UK... for a house at this price it may be worth going in at say 290 if you're not emotional about it. You would also be paying less stamp duty.
As for burbs, there is really no way you can make judgements when you haven't been since each burb is quite different and it depends on what you want... there is so much choice.

steveyp

2 reasons Gillian...

1. The world economy is at an interesting point with the US on a tightening phase with interest rates, the effect being that the US dollar is rising. Australia is then a less interesting place to invest for foreign investors. Coupled to this import prices will rise (High demand for Chinese goods in OZ). making inflation higher. this leaves very little room for the RBA to put down interest rates. The average Australian is heavily in debt and will curb spending. The net result is a slow economy and eventual falling house prices.
Faced with an interest rate cut to help homeowners or a rise to keep inflation under control any central bank will go for inflation every time.
I reckon 2007 will be enough time to see where we are in the market.

2. I am on a business visa and will (touch wood) get my PR in 2007, so keeping liquid is important in case the business requires it. I get 5.25% on my cash in the bank, I would doubt the suburbs I am looking at will match that over 18 months.

And if I am wrong? well at least I live in a beautiful city. I will just have to work a little harder!

Cheers

AliMay

[QUOTE=Larissa]. If you're objective and not too emotional about commiting to a house, you can try a low asking price and may get away with it. Trouble is when you have so many loaded migrants coming in who will pay top bucks just to get into the housing market, it overinflates the market and the agents will see you a mile off!

I for one have found it hard renting- We've been in rental for nearly 5 months and have just bought our house (well termites permitting). Its really hard not to get emotional about having your own place. WE're now going to have to wriggle out of the 12 month lease we were forced to take on. There was nothing else in Jan in our burb.

We used a Buyers advocate to help us buy.I would really recommend them. They are more common over East but there are a few in Perth now. We found the property and then he did the negotiations- which were lengthy. The local agents had been round us like flies and it was good to get a neutral person on our side giving advice and doing the hard negotiating and preparing the contracts. We bid lower than the range value to start with. You have to be careful as it can turn the seller off.

Good luck
Ali

ABCDiamond

Average prices and changes can be found here:

www.homepriceguide.com.au
Just type in the suburb name or postcode.

darkless

Hi,

The West Australian the following week (28th May) has a pull out magazine called property report. There is a lot of stuff in here including suburb average house prices and % rise over the last 12 months.

Like someone else said, it is impossible to say what will happen in the next 12 months, but for reference here are some values for the suburbs you mention.

First figure is rise in last year, Second figure is rise in last 5 yrs and the Third figure is the median sale price for the last year (to March 05)

Ocean Reef: 10.1, 12.4, $430,000
Hillarys: 7.7, 12.6, $474,000
Gwelup: 8.4, 11.2, $415,000
Karrinyup: 12.5, 13.5, $415,000
Joondalup: 12.4, 13.4, $295,000

If you are look at being as far out of the city as Joondalup and Ocean Reef anyway, then it is probably worth your while looking at places like Connolly, Currambine and Kinross (tipped in the paper as a good buy at the moment). These are all nice suburbs, 1 suburb back from the beach and approx 4 to 8 mins from Joondalup / Lakeside / Shops etc

Connolly: 12.6, 11.6, $394,000
Currambine: 17.9, 12.3, $330,300
Kinross: 9.3, 11.6, $282,000

The tip i mentioned before about Kinross was quote: "Northern coastal suburb with high standard of affordable, and undervalued, housing."

Also for Joondalup: "An emerging social and economic hub in the northern suburbs which will benefit from rising petrol prices with people wanting to live closer to work."

Hope this helps.

Darkless

Larissa

Ssssh Dave, we don't want the place getting full of migrants and pushing up the price lol
The same property guide identified basically most areas NOR as being growth areas, bascially because the freeway is being extended soon to Clarkson, plans to go up further too. Yanchep is due to for more development. Schools are getting more funding too; they expect all those areas such as Merriwa, Quinns, Butler and Jindalee to rise in price as more ammenities are put in.
Areas SOR are due to rise, Mandura is booming, again all due to infrastructure improvements.
Places like Heathridge, Craigie and Padbury look like they will start to do better as people renovate etc, plus you get bigger plots there. Might be worth looking at by people with young families who don't mind living with a bit of reno work going on.

Margie

Hi, I'm rushing out now, but saw your post and just wanted to say thanks for the info!

Margie

NKSK

Margie. I foolow the property news by using Google alerts. Type in a few key words such as 'property' 'prices' and 'perth' and google then sends you every on-line news article containg those words.

e.g last 24 hours:

House price growth at nine-year low
http://www.abc.net.au/news/items/200....htm?queenslan

House prices: Sydney drags its heels
http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/...568355355.html