Perth's property market clocked its busiest week since 2013 after it recorded over 1,000 sales of dwellings and vacant land in the week ending 21 June, according to the latest market update from the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia (REIWA).
Over the week, Perth reported 613 home sales and 412 vacant land sales. Both of these figures are significantly higher than the 52-week average.
The sales activity for established homes increased significantly, rising 7% from the preceding week. Land sales, however, recorded the standout gains.
Damian Collins, president of REIWA, said the boom in land sales, which were at their highest level since August 2009, could be attributed to the various government grants and incentives announced earlier this month.
"The schemes have certainly helped people who were undecided about a house-and-land package make their decision quicker, and we will likely see vacant land transactions remain at higher-than-normal levels until the end of the year when the scheme concludes," he said.
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Five suburbs, in particular, comprised the bulk of the land sales for the week. These suburbs, which include Madora Bay, Baldivis, Maddington, Wellard and Hamond Park, are all situated in the outer region of Perth.
"While things are looking positive for the property market, we hope that the recent market activity will not only lead to the recovery we have been waiting for, but also continue post the government schemes," Collins said.
Cath Hart, executive director for Western Australia at the Housing Industry Association (HIA), said the home-building industry of Perth and the state is expected to recover over the next 12 months.
Hart said the stimulus schemes announced by the state and federal governments will likely boost consumer sentiment, which will, in turn, spur growth in housing starts.
"We now expect the September quarter to be the bottom of the prolonged downturn in residential building in WA which started in June 2014," she said.
According to HIA's projections, the state is expected to record 15,590 dwelling starts for the financial year 2020-2021. This was higher than the earlier expectation of 10,000 new dwellings, which took into consideration the impacts of COVID-19 on the housing market. Prior to the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak, the state is slated to build nearly 20,000 homes.
"The revised outlook for the state's home-building sector is a 15% improvement from the financial year 2019-2020, when we did about 13,800 starts, as the sector regains some of the momentum that was starting before COVID-19," Hart said.
The revised outlook took into consideration several factors, including the announcement of the Building Bonus Grant and the HomeBuilder Scheme, the plans to cut red tape in building approvals, and the campaign to encourage interstate fly-in-fly-out workers and their families to settle in the state.
"These measures, plus the unique features of our extraordinary state position Western Australia to come back better, emerging from the global pandemic faster than other states as an attractive destination for business investment and interstate and international migrants," Hart said.
