The month in review: South Western WA
By Herron Todd White
June, 2009
The market in the South–West continues to be very much
driven by the first home buyers either building new
homes or buying established. The glitch in this is that the
banks have tightened their lending criteria so that many
first home buyers are still unable to climb the hurdle of
getting the necessary deposit together. All in all this may
not be bad thing as it has the effect of limiting the market
to purchasers who have a reasonable chance of surviving
any potential future downturn or interest rate rise.
Overall there is reported to be a rise in volumes without
any significant rise in value and in fact in Busselton and
the smaller centres there is still evidence of decreases in
value where as Bunbury appears to have stabilised.
On the back of first home buyers, block sales have been
steady and this appears to be the one area of the market
where some increase in price has been noted as earlier
stages of subdivisions have been sold off and newreleases are coming on to the market.
The rental market in Bunbury continues to tight but there
appears to be some easing in other south-west centres
possibly as a consequence of first home buyers moving
out of rental accommodation as opposed to Bunbury
with its major works projects starting to bring workers to
town.
The second buyers market has started to be a little more
active with sales up to $450,000 now more common.
The market above this level still remains quiet with
only sporadic sales recorded. This appears to be only
logical as a result of the sale of the first house requiring
a subsequent purchase and whether this continues as
first home buyers decrease as a percentage of the market
remains to be seen.
Interest in buying apartments by both investors and renters has seen more sales in the last 6 month than
the previous 2 years but at considerably reduced prices
to those previously recorded with reductions of 15 to
20% not uncommon. Again the major projects may be
helping this market with good rentals being achieved for
(particularly furnished) apartments which suit the upper
echelons of managers moving to the area to service these
jobs.
Over and above this there is still uncertainty going
forward as to how long the improved conditions will last
and at what value levels but currently confidence in the
property market in the region appears to be better than it
has been for the last year at least.
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