Perth's housing boom continues to defy national trends with prices jumping just over 10 per cent in the September quarter, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Perth's housing boom continues to defy national trends with prices jumping just over 10 per cent in the September quarter, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
This helped secure an annual housing price growth rate, from September 2005 to September 2006, of 45.9 per cent, compared to a national average growth rate of 9.5 per cent for the year and 2.2 per cent for the quarter.
The result was above economists' expectations for a 0.9 per cent rise in the quarter.
In WA, the housing price rise was exacerbated by a 15.7 per cent increase over the year in the cost of building a project home, according to the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia.
REIWA president Rob Druitt said the recent hike had come on the back of a 22 per cent price rise in the June quarter.
"The new housing sector is burdened with capacity and labour constraints and struggling to deliver on the more than 20,000 dwellings under construction," he said.
"If cost and time constraints prove too difficult for some households, then this will force people to meet their housing needs either in the established market or by renting."
According to REIWA, the September quarter saw blocks increase by $50,000, pushing the median price for residential land in Perth to $265,000.
Master Builder's Association Housing director Gavan Forster said the growth rate represented a mixed blessing for home buyers.
In an MBA announcement, Mr Forster said that rapid price escalation had provided home buyers with greater wealth and increased equity in their existing home, which owners were using to finance renovations, additions and construction.
On the other hand those seeking a home for the first time were being locked out of the market.
"It's a classic case of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer," he said.
The sentiment was echoed by Property Council of Australia senior WA policy advisor Lino Iacomella, who called on the State Government to relax taxes for first home buyers.
"The recommencement of the state tax review is an opportunity for the Government to provide stamp duty relief for home buyers who are struggling to raise a deposit for a new home," he said.
"Lowering home buying taxes in WA will attract more skilled workers to the state, which will assist in containing the cost pressures in the construction sector."
Grange Securities research director Stephen Roberts said overall house price growth was higher than expected given an interest rates hike in August, although Perth house prices were "extrordinary".
"Perth house prices are just extraordinary," he said.
Despite the gains, Mr Roberts said the pace of house price growth was likely to slow in the coming months after the central bank raised interest rates last week a quarter of a percentage point to 6.25 per cent.
"It will slow down the pace of annual growth in house prices over the next quarter or two," he said.
"What that implies is that Sydney house prices, on an annual basis, could go sub-zero again and I should imagine there will be a significant pull-back in that 45.9 per cent annual growth rate in Perth house prices.
"It will still be growing fast, but nothing like that pace."
Meanwhile, house prices in Sydney inched up just 0.2 per cent in the quarter, for an annual rate of 1.4 per cent, after recording negative growth of minus 0.5 in the June quarter.
Melbourne prices rose 1.7 per cent in the quarter and 7.5 per cent over the year, while in Brisbane they were up 0.9 per cent and 6.5 per cent.
In Adelaide, house prices increased 0.6 per cent in the quarter and 6.4 per cent in the year, while in Hobart they were 1.5 per cent and 9.4 per cent, up 3.1 per cent and 17.3 per cent in Darwin, and up 3.8 per cent and 10.5 per cent in Canberra.
