“The inner part of Perth for townhouses was pretty much on par, there’s only $1000 [disparity], there’s quite balance there,” she said.
“But when you look at the middle suburbs, this is where it’s almost like buyers are willing to pay much more than what listings are in the middle suburbs of Perth, more so relative to the outer locations.
“And that says to me location is premium, but I think it also demonstrates the affordability impact of the escalation of house prices, and we know that Perth has been that absolute growth story in recent years.”
The median search price for a townhouse within 10 kilometres of Perth’s CBD was $1000 higher than the median listing price of $799,0000. However, searches for townhouses 10 to 20 kilometres from the city were $800,000, which was $50,000 higher than the median listing price of $750,000.
With houses in “middle suburbs” only on average about $20,000 higher than townhouses, Powell said she suspected buyers were steering towards newer developments.
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“I also think the impacts of affordability mean that there’s probably more people considering other types of property in order to find something within their budget,” she said.
“And you know, the fact that you’ve got search prices in middle suburbs for town homes $50,000 higher than the listed price – is that also telling us that there is a pool of buyers out there that are looking for something either slightly more premium than what we are currently offering, or a different configuration?”
As for the disparity between the median search and listing prices in the Cottesloe-Claremont area, Powell said the result mirrored trends in inner-city suburbs across other capitals where there were “vast differences” in what people searched for against what was listed.
“And I think this is where you get that kind of domino effect of people priced out of a house, then starting to look to other locations or other property type in order to find something in their budget,” she said.
