September 13, 2018 by Rebecca Crommelin
On Phil's Property Corner this month - written by Phil Bertram, the owner of Candour Property Group - we take a look at the latest property market & economy news in Perth, and tips for building your first home.
August showed some very interesting figures for the Perth property market. The Median Price fell by 0.2% to $505,000, however the available listings on the market also dropped quite significantly – 2.7% down to 13,411. This is getting close to the number of listings around this time last year, which were the lowest number of listings since December 2014. You can see all these numbers in REIWA’s August Market Update here. This is a promising trend as we approach the Spring sales period and one that is being mirrored in the rental market.
Rental listings decreased by a huge 8.5% over the month of August, with the rental vacancy rate coming down to 4.5%. This again seems to reflect an increase in demand for Perth property and is additional evidence to suggest that net migration for Perth is on the increase. These numbers are only published at the end of each calendar year but in the meantime there are a number of indicators that the WA economy is improving faster than many anticipated.
The West Australian published an article on the 6th September - ‘WA back in the black after four-year recession’, link here - that explored the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showing WA’s domestic economy expanded 0.2% in the three months to June 30. This took our annual growth to 1.3%, the highest it’s been since 2013. This growth has been achieved off the back of government infrastructure spending and growing business investment, however, the fundamentals do appear to be tracking upwards. With $10 billion of mining projects about to begin production there are many experts predicting WA’s economy to improve steadily over the coming years.
Also promising is that the state appears to be continuing to apply the lessons of past mining booms, rather than simply relying on a boom-bust mining cycle that we have experienced in iron ore. In the case of Lithium, instead of just exporting the ore (fetching roughly $800US/tonne on global markets) we are upgrading it to a far more valuable Lithium Hydroxide (worth roughly $10,000US/tonne) right here in Kwinana. You can read about that here. Liquid Natural Gas is also an exciting story, we’re well into the production phase now and WA has recently dispatched a team to Norway to lure major companies towards setting up southern headquarters here in Perth. This would create up to 45,000 jobs locally, rather than relying on flying in specialised personnel from Europe for shutdowns and maintenance. These jobs would be highly skilled and long term given the LNG supply on existing projects will last many decades, you can read about that here.
We have seen a big increase recently in the number of first home buyers exploring the market. We know that it can be quite challenging to know exactly how much your build will end up costing (land price + build price), and therefore how much the total purchase price is of your first home. In many cases first home buyers end up buying an existing property simply because they’re unsure of how much a new house would cost. With the state government still giving the $10,000 First Home Owners Grant to brand new builds and $0 to existing properties, you could be missing out on a fair amount of money, not to mention that with a new build we can make sure you get exactly what you want. We sit down with you, no charge or obligation, to help you understand the tips and tricks in buying your first home, helping you know exactly how much it will cost and making it a lot less stressful.
If you’d like to know more the next step is to chat with Phil Bertram. There is no obligation to proceed any further than you’re comfortable with and he doesn’t charge for his time. All strategies are implemented in tandem with your Mortgage Choice Mortgage Broker.
To arrange for him to call you please email him with your name and contact number on phil@candourproperty.com.au and he’ll be in touch.
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