Perth property searches top Google rankings

Perth is currently the most searched Australian city for prospective property buyers on Google, with surging demand starting to push up prices across nearly half of the WA capital’s suburbs.

Analysis of Google property searches by digital marketing agency SEMrush showed “houses for sale Perth” has had the highest number of searches nationally since the start of the year. 

The same search in Brisbane was the second most popular search, SEMrush said, followed by Melbourne, Adelaide, Canberra and Sydney.

“The data indicates a significant interest in Perth, with national property searches clearly showing all eyes are on the capital city’s housing market,” SEMrush global head of marketing Olga Andrienko said.

“Perth had the highest average number of property searches of all of the capital cities closely followed by Brisbane, indicating a higher demand to purchase property in WA compared to other states.”

Most users' preference in Perth was to search for a traditional house, with that specific term recording 241 per cent more searches than for apartments.

Ms Adrienko said the data also indicated there was interstate interest in Perth property.

“For example, in the ACT, people searching for houses in Perth jumped 502 per cent from 2018 to 2019,” Ms Adrienko said.

At the same time, buyer activity is tracking 40 per cent higher than at the same time last year in Perth, with Real Estate Institute of WA data showing 45 per cent of Perth’s suburbs recorded price growth in August.

Stock listings are also tightening, with the 10,686 properties available for sale in Perth at the end of September down 23 per cent from 2019.

Momentum Wealth residential investment committee chair Emma Everett said the easing of COVID-19 restrictions earlier this year in Perth had placed downwards pressure on stock levels.

“These conditions are translating into an increasingly competitive market as buyers in high demand areas compete for a reducing pool of properties, with our buyer’s agents regularly noting higher attendance at home opens and multiple offers from buyers for high quality stock in our preferred suburbs,” Ms Everett said.

Suburbs in hot demand include Kingsley, Beldon and Mount Hawthorn, where days on market currently average 20, 20 and 24 days, respectively, according to REIWA.

Ms Everett said while much of the sales demand had been driven by owner-occupiers and first home buyers, investors were starting to turn their attention to Perth.

“We are starting to see that interest from investors who recognise that conditions are ripening and the market is already moving, and we expect it’s only a matter of time until others follow suit, particularly once we see broader rental growth” she said.

“Perth’s relative affordability, improving rental conditions, and early growth indicators are providing ideal conditions for investors with the right property selection criteria to enter the market at a reasonable price point and at a strong yield while positioning themselves to leverage future market improvements.”

Harcourts WA chief executive Paul Blakely said Perth’s property market had “gone a bit nuts” since COVID-19 restrictions were eased and construction incentives HomeBuilder and Building Boost were made available.

“We’ve had offices that have had record months and as a state, we’ve had the best number of written sales in our 13-14-year history, it has been quite amazing,” Mr Blakely said.

“Construction incentives have seen a big rise in demand for land and land sales which have contributed to us exceeding our targets. 

“We’ve come off five to six years of the worst market in WA for over 30 years, so we really didn’t have anywhere else to drop.”

Mr Blakely said prior to the pandemic, Perth real estate agents had been gearing up for a big year.

“Uncertainty set in when COVID first hit but we then bounced out of the blocks really fast due to low interest rates, government incentives and high buyer demand,” he said.

“Vacancy rates are also way down so the market is really ticking along a lot better than anyone anticipated.

“Spring is traditionally our biggest time of the year in terms of listings, but we have seen a little tightening of stock coming onto the market recently."