Perth’s housing market has experienced one of the nation’s biggest price booms since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, with dwelling values soaring by 102% since March 2020, according to PropTrack:
Despite the surge in values, Perth’s housing market remains relatively affordable compared to the other major capital cities.
According to Domain, Perth is the only major capital city market to have a median house price below $1 million, at $981,300 as of the September quarter.
Consequently, Perth’s median house price compared to the other capital cities remains slightly below the historical average, as illustrated in the chart below:
This suggests that Perth home values have further to run before they would be considered relatively ‘overvalued’ compared to the other markets.
Justin Fabo from Antipodean Macro published the following chart showing that Cotality’s daily dwelling values index is rising at around a 1% monthly pace in seasonally adjusted terms:
This upswing is being led by Perth, where values are rising at around a 1.8% monthly pace:
Meanwhile, Cotality reports that Perth’s rental vacancy rate fell by 0.3% to 1.1% in the year to September 2025, below the capital city average of 1.5%:
Source: Cotality
The supply situation is Western Australia has eased somewhat, with dwelling construction rates rising and population growth falling:
Even so, with one new home completed for every three population additions in 2024-25, the supply situation remains tight.
Perth house prices are certain to rise for the foreseeable future due to further stimulus from rate cuts, strong immigration, and Labor’s 5% deposit scheme for first home buyers.
That said, Perth has historically been Australia’s most volatile major capital city market, experiencing booms and busts alongside the mining sector.
For example, last decade’s commodity bear market, illustrated in the chart above, was followed by an 18% nominal decline in Perth home values between 2014 and 2019 (much larger in real terms).
Therefore, while Perth’s housing market is currently running hot, it is only a matter of time before it experiences another prolonged downturn alongside the mining sector and commodity prices.
