The three Perth suburbs where house prices doubled in five years
By Sarah Brookes
House prices have doubled in three Perth suburbs over the past five years, according to Domain’s House Price Report released Thursday.
In the City of Rockingham, Cooloongup had the largest lift in median house value, rising 114 per cent over five years to $542,000.
This three-bedroom, one-bathroom duplex on Annean Street sold for $507,500 in March, more than double its price of $249,000 in 2018. But in a sign of WA’s boom-and-bust cycle, the same property sold for $280,000 in 2006.
Rounding out the top 10 biggest movers were Parmelia (up 109 per cent to $501,000) and Armadale (up 100 per cent to $450,000).
While most of the suburbs clocking up massive gains were in Perth’s relatively affordable outer fringe suburbs, impressive gains were recorded in the Hills’ Darlington (up 92 per cent to $1.05 million) and coastal Kallaroo (up 89 per cent to $1.17 million).
So-called bridesmaid suburbs (lesser-known suburbs situated next to but overshadowed by better-known ones) also fared well, after buyers were priced out of the most desirable areas.
Mullaloo lifted 67 per cent to $1.12 million, $300,000 cheaper than Sorrento which has a median house value of $1.44 million.
Perth house prices rose $52,000, or 6.6 per cent, over the June quarter to a record high of $852,240 according to Domain. That was an increase of 815 per cent since 1990 when a house set you back $96,000.
InSynergy Advisory head of property research, Kevin Hoang, said Perth’s residential property market was moving so fast that almost all sales were advertised without a price guide, resulting in sale prices tens of thousands above the reserve.
“This is likely driven by a fear of missing out in a bid to capitalise on further price growth,” he said.
Hoang said it would take years for supply to catch up with growing demand, fuelling further pressure on prices.
“In the past 12 months, new dwelling completions were 15,500, while the population increased by 94,000, resulting in severe undersupply conditions with six new arrivals per new dwelling built,” he said.
“If an average household size of 2.5 is used, then almost 20,000 dwellings are under-supplied in the city over the past 12 months.”
In another worrying sign for the besieged construction industry the number of apprentices starting in a trade has dropped sharply, down 17 per cent compared to the year earlier according to the latest HIA Trades Report.
HIA executive director Geordan Murray said the most acute shortages of skilled labour were for bricklaying, ceramic tiling, roofing, carpentry and plastering and this was contributing to rising trades prices which was pushing up the price of new homes.
“While the government should be looking at ways to enable the industry to use the skilled migration system to address skill shortages, creating training opportunities for local workers should be the priority,” he said.
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