Dr Nicola Powell

I think

You know, what we have seen is heightened demand, buyer demand in Perth, and it still does remain elevated.

When you have a look at the number of sales over the March quarter is about 15% higher than that five-year average.

But what we're starting to see in Perth is similar trends to what we're seeing in other cities is that bit of a rebalance between supply and demand.

It is changing.

We have seen a pullback in the number of home loans being financed.

It is reducing from that 2021 peak.

And it's particularly first home buyers.

They have dropped.

First home buyer home loans are down about 39% annually.

But investment activity is on the rise across WA.

The number of investment home loans jumped 47% over the past year.

So it's a really interesting changing dynamic in terms of the buyer segments that are active within the WA market.

But again, one of those things that we're seeing in Perth is a rise in new listings.

And that's really helping to shift this supply and demand dynamics.

And I think the interesting thing for Perth this quarter, particularly so, was the lifting of Fortress WA because we obviously saw the strict border controls come down in early March.

And on top of that, we've now got international borders being reopened.

So,

What that means is it allows a easy relocation for anybody wanting to return to WA from overseas or from interstate.

And I think given the timing of how we produce our quarterly figures, you know, it is for the March quarter, I think we're yet to pick up any additional demand as a result of those border controls coming down.