House sales drop as rental market surges

Rockingham’s median house price has fallen by $21,000 over the past three months, while the number of houses sold in the quarter was 113 fewer than the same period in 2015.

The latest Real Estate Institute of Western Australia statistics show that the median price of a house over the third quarter this year, from July to September, was $394,000.

In comparison, the median price in Rockingham was $415,000 in the third quarter of 2015 and the same figure in the second quarter of this year.

The number of houses sold between July and September was 392 — 113 fewer than the 505 that changed hands 12 months earlier.

It appears people in Rockingham are taking advantage of falling rental prices, with 160 more houses rented in the last quarter than the same period in 2015.

Over the July-September period, 662 houses were rented — a rise from 502 in the same quarter last year.

REIWA president Hayden Groves said the drop in the number of sales transactions in Rockingham came as something of a surprise.

“It’s quite remarkable we’ve had this change,” he said.

“It is in line with other metropolitan areas, where we’ve had lower levels of transactional activity compared to 2015, but the surprising thing is that we thought 2015 was bad.

“It is a bit of a concern — we did feel 2016’s level of transactions would be similar to last year, not drop.”

Mr Groves said the dip in the number of investment properties being purchased could explain the figures.

“There is very little investment activity as part of the market activity more broadly because rent prices have fallen,” he said. “In normal markets, 9 per cent is investment buying — if you half that or take a considerable chunk away, like currently, suddenly you have less transactional activity as a result.”