Perth prices could finally see a rebound in 2020

The latest CoreLogic data shows Perth dwelling prices fell another -0.5% over August, bringing quarterly falls to -1.8% and year on year price falls to -8.8%.

As a result of this latest shift Perth values are now 20.6% down from their June 2014 peak.

Falls in dwelling values were larger across Perth apartments this year with -9.9% falls compared to a -8.6% fall in house values.

Perth's Mandurah has seen the fourth largest overall value decline -35.7% this year.

In July, Domain Economist Trent Wiltshire predicted some Perth price growth in 2020, however he warned there is still an ongoing risk that price falls could continue.

"A more positive outlook for Perth ​has existed for a while, but property prices have continued falling, mortgage arrears​ are rising, and more households are in ​negative equity​," Wiltshire said.

"House and unit prices are expected to bottom out in spring and remain unchanged during the six months to December, with prices likely to stay at the June median of $520,000 for houses and $330,000 for units.

"A rebound in Perth prices in 2020 was expected, but given the entrenched weakness in the market, only modest price growth of 0 to 2% for houses and units was forecast."

More recently REIWA data showed that listings have increased 6% since the December 2018 quarter to 16,957, however it isn’t helping selling periods. It took an average of 78 days for vendors to sell their properties last quarter.

REIWA data shows that 29% of suburbs in Perth had an increase in rents during the quarter, and 36% of suburbs saw increases over the past year.

President of REIWA Damian Collins recently said: "It’s also worth noting that a significant portion (43%) of Perth sellers are achieving sales prices at or above their original asking price, which suggests that many vendors are heeding the advice of their real estate agent and pricing their properties in line with market expectations."

Herron Todd White found that the residential market in Perth has tracked closely in line with their February predictions for the year (so far).

In their August report, the valuation firm stated: "Our assumptions were that the rental market would continue to be a strong point for Western Australia and that sales volumes and house price growth would remain subdued until 2020.

"There has been a lot of speculation about when the Perth market will finally turn and it doesn’t seem like we are much closer to knowing, mostly due to our split property cycles and diminishing sales volumes.

"Thankfully, the wider Perth area has seen some stability in its median price."

The report noted that according to their data the median house price settled at $500,000 for the March quarter, 0.6% higher than the previous quarter.

The unit median price also remained steady, holding at $380,000.