Consumers remain positive about the Perth property market despite the end to financial building stimulus measures according to new survey results from the UDIA /Urbis Home Purchaser Sentiment Survey.
According to the survey, 44% of respondents feel positive about purchasing a property in the current market and 69% believe property prices will rise in Perth in the next six months.
The percentage of those who feel positive increased further when only looking at the responses from owner occupiers, with 58% of that segment in a positive state of mind about purchasing Perth property.
The UDIA Urbis Home Purchaser Sentiment Survey (Perth, WA) offers insight into how 502 people aged 21 years and over viewed the current market as of May 2021. This is the second time the survey has been conducted in Perth, with results from this year able to be compared with August 2020 as well as results from around the country.
In a promising turn, those looking to invest were more positive this time around when compared with 2020 survey figures, with the percentage of potential investors positive about purchasing lifting from 38% to 41%.
According to UDIA WA CEO Tanya Steinbeck, enticing investors back into the WA property market is critical to ongoing market growth.
“Due to longer term issues such as the Foreign Buyers Surcharge, as well as newer barriers such as the hard border closures, the Western Australian market has lost a significant portion of investors to other states or countries,” Ms Steinbeck said.
“It is good to see that the word is getting out about the benefits of investing in Perth, given affordable prices and strong rental demand,” Ms Steinbeck said.
“Investors are critical to adding much needed supply to the rental market as well as stimulating ongoing activity in the market,” Ms Steinbeck said.
Positive sentiment was comparable across all Capital Cities surveyed with Sydney (45%), Melbourne (44%), Brisbane (40%) all returning very similar percentage of positive sentiment.
“While positive sentiment is encouraging, the number of people saying they are likely to buy in the next 12 months has declined since last survey,” Ms Steinbeck said.
“This is likely because people were influenced by the financial stimulus available when the last survey was undertaken,” Ms Steinbeck said.
“It could also be a sign that potential buyers are looking to wait a little longer, as responses suggest that while consumers are expecting prices to increase in the next 6-12 months, 34% are expecting price decreases in the next 18 months,” Ms Steinbeck said. “Some may be holding out to see what happens in the market during that time frame.”
Again, a declining level of potential buyers was consistent across the capital cities. With respondents in Sydney most likely to consider making a home purchase.
In terms of what type of housing respondents wanted to live in, a single home dominated results again in this year’s survey.
“75% of respondents said they would prefer to live in a single home,” Ms Steinbeck said. “I think this says a lot in relation to where we are at with the infill and density debate in Perth.”
Perth respondents under the age of 24 were most attracted to apartments, with 19% of this age group interested in purchasing an apartment.
Similarly, 22% of those aged over 65 were interested in buying either an apartment or town house (medium density).
Across the country, 20% of Sydney responders said they would be interested in an apartment, the highest of all the capital cities.
“UDIA WA is very supportive of the State Government’s agenda to increase the levels of quality medium and high density in appropriate areas across Greater Perth to improve the availability of a diverse range of housing choices to the market,” Ms Steinbeck said.
“However, these results do highlight the importance of the State Government’s community engagement program in relation to infill development and educating the community about the positive benefits of housing diversity in our suburbs,” Ms Steinbeck said.
Urbis Director David Cresp pointed out that the survey does show the desire to live in apartments in has not changed since last year. The proportion of people wanting to live in apartments is unchanged between this survey and previous surveys conducted in Perth and Sydney.
“The stability of these results is despite some speculation that COVID-19 could make apartment living less desirable,” Mr Cresp said.
“The survey also highlighted that when people are looking to move and choosing what suburb they want to live in, key decision-making factors are the type of house they want to live in and the level of amenity that the suburb offers,” Mr Cresp said.
The survey also found the locations where people want to live in.
“While Como emerged as the top-ranking suburb this year according to the survey, South Perth, which was the top-ranking suburb last time also remains popular, coming up as the number two suburb this time around,” Mr Cresp said.
Other high-ranking suburbs tended to be middle ring suburbs such as Applecross, North Perth and Victoria Park or coastal suburbs such as Scarborough, Fremantle, Cottesloe and Hillarys.
“For people most interested in living in an apartment, Perth and East Perth were the top ranking
suburbs, and for people interested in a free-standing house, South Perth ranked the highest,” said Mr Cresp.
For people looking to live in medium density housing such as town houses which Perth is continuing to see more development the top-ranking suburbs were Como, Victoria Park and Subiaco.
Ends.
URBIS/UDIA HOME BUYER SENTIMENT SURVEY SNAPSHOT
502 people surveyed in Perth, May 2021
Overall market sentiment:
- 44% of people surveyed are positive about purchasing in the current market
- 58% of people purchasing for owner occupation purposes are positive about the market
- 41% of people positive about potential investment in the Perth housing market
Price sentiment:
- 69% say prices will increase in next 6 months
- 40% believe prices will increase in next 18 months
What they want to buy:
- 75% want a free-standing home
- 20% of people want medium or high-density housing
Where they want to buy rankings:
- Como
- South Perth
- Scarborough
- Applecross
- North Perth
- Victoria Park
- Fremantle
- Cottesloe
- Hillarys
- Perth
‘Sticky Suburbs’ – Where they already live and want to buy:
- Como
- Alkimos
- Scarborough
- Yokine
- Byford
- Inglewood
- North Perth
- Perth
- Cockburn Central
- East Perth
Contact:
Gemma Osiejak
Executive Manager Communications & Marketing
P: 0421 506 819
E: gosiejak@udiawa.com.au