After a number of flat years driven by downturns in the resource sector, Perth’s property market is showing early signs of revival, according to real estate group Raine & Horne.
“Economic reports in January and February will set the tone for a 2017 rebound,” said Craig Abbott, general manager for Western Australia at Raine & Horne.
“The key factors we’ll be looking for in WA will be the performance of the retail sector over the Christmas period, the local unemployment rate and inflation. The February meeting of the Reserve Bank will also be monitored closely.”
There was a lot of doom and gloom being reported with not many people looking at the bigger picture, Abbott told
Australian Broker.
“Iron ore’s come back quite a lot and the Australian dollar’s been at its nominal rate against the US dollar for quite some time so I think you’ll see that 2017 will be a transition year with 2018 being a growth year.”
With Perth’s real estate market bottoming out, it would be difficult for prices to retract even more, he said, especially since they were already at the 2007 level.
“There are all these little indicators that we’re bouncing on the bottom so 2017 should be a transition year.”
This means next year will be a great time to buy, he added, since there was only really one direction to go.
For property trends in the final quarter of this year, there were 10% more people attending open homes or searching for properties online than there were in the same period in 2015, he said.
“While this activity hasn’t translated into stronger capital values, off-the-plan and recently built apartments, priced between $300,000 and $500,000, are attracting the attention of motivated buyers and investors.”
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