WA's silver lining

5 March 2021

While the majority of Australian states faced immense challenges across various industries in 2020, the dark cloud had a silver lining for the WA property industry.

In mid-2020, the State Government launched a WA Building Bonus of $20,000 which could be used simultaneously with the Federal HomeBuilder Grant of $25,000. These grants were on top of the $10,000 First Home Owners Grant, meaning eligible Western Australians were able to access up to $55,000 for their build.

WA buyers seized this once-in-a lifetime opportunity, with a huge surge in enquiries and sales from June 2020 to February 2021. The majority of these buyers were first-home buyers jumping at the prospect of owning their own home – The Australian Dream.

The call of WA’s sunny shores was too great for some, seeing an increase of returning expats and interstate migrants. This combined with record low interest rates, a sharp decline in rental vacancies and the stimulus package, resulted in high demand for housing within the state.

The perfect example was seen in first-home buyers Brittani Lea and Matthew Watt, who are building at Solaris Private Estate in Forrestdale. They took advantage of the opportunity presented by the pandemic saying, “I thought buying was something we’d think about when we have kids down the track. It‘s a big step to take now, but something good has to come out of COVID.”

The WA portfolio, made up of 14 projects across the Perth metropolitan area, is set to welcome over 900 new residents this year – a 160 per cent increase from this time last year. The increased number of buyers through the doors in recent months echoes the surge of buyer confidence in the WA market and shows that there’s never been a better time to secure your own home.

To meet market demand, we’ve also seen accelerated development schedules across the board, with a significant number of stages brought forward.

The biggest demand shift for residential land was seen in Perth’s north-east corridor at Ariella Private Estate in Brabham and to the south-east at The Brook at Byford and Byford on the Scarp.

In addition to this, southern corridor estates Emerald Park in Wellard and Karmara in Piara Waters are both close to being sold out after first launching to the market in 2008 & 2017 respectively.

Townhomes in our Incontro project in Subiaco are now over 80% sold after launching in November 2020, Solaris Private Estate is selling out of the third stage after launching in March 2020, and Hamptons Edge at Mariners Cove is down to its final home for sale.

While the stimulus is being wound back, the outlook is positive for FY22 with rapid growing communities and a long pipeline of quality projects underway.