Perth property market leads Australia in growth as migration and mining combine

Perth's residential property market has been the strongest performing of any Australian capital city for the past two years, with the median house price having increased approximately 22 per cent in the past year alone to reach $720,000 — a level that remains affordable relative to Sydney and Melbourne but represents an extraordinary capital appreciation for existing owners and a significant affordability deterioration for first home buyers and low-to-middle-income earners.

The market's exceptional growth reflects a combination of factors unique to Perth's current moment: net interstate migration at historically high levels as eastern Australian residents relocate for mining and resources employment opportunities; international migration adding population to a city that did not add commensurately to its housing stock during the COVID years; and a mining boom that is sustaining high incomes and employment confidence that supports property purchase decisions.

REIA president Damian Collins said Perth's market was experiencing a supply-demand mismatch that was unlike anything he had observed in 25 years of Western Australian property practice. "We have had booms before in Perth. The difference now is we have population growth on top of the mining income, and we did not build enough houses in between," he said.

The state government's response includes accelerating the zoning reforms that allow higher-density development in established suburbs, land release in the outer metropolitan growth corridors of Ellenbrook, Baldivis, and Alkimos, and funding for public housing construction. The scale of the housing challenge is such that none of these measures is expected to resolve the affordability issue quickly, with analysts projecting the affordability pressure to persist for three to five years at minimum.

This article was compiled by AI from the sources linked above and screened before publishing. See our editorial standards.