Perth’s Long Road To A Real Estate Boom
After a lacklustre 2020, the Western Australian capital is poised to break out this year.
By Kristen Craze
Mon, Feb 15, 2021 3:10am
5 min
5 min
They both boast golden beaches, 28-degree-celsius summer days and glamorous waterfront real estate, but when it comes to comparing property prices there is a great divide between Perth and Sydney.
In addition to the 4000km separating the two Australian cities, there is a cavernous $700,000 gulf in average house prices. But that looks set to change.
Despite Perth being 2020’s second worst-performing Australian capital city in terms of price growth, Louis Christopher, managing director of SQM Research, a residential property data firm, said recent numbers show all the hallmarks of a boom.
“Our forecast is that dwelling prices for Perth will rise by 8% to 12% this year,” he said. “We have another scenario where everything goes right with the vaccine, and everything gets back to some kind of normal in the world, then prices will rise by 10% to 15%.”
“If we are correct about that forecast, it will be the first meaningful rise Perth housing has had since 2007, or briefly between 2013 and 2014,” he added. “It’s taken a long time for the market to experience strong rises. Indeed, the median house price for Perth is actually still lower than it was in 2008, but it’s fair to say it’s offering really good value relative to other cities and relative to its recent history as well,” he said.
According to SQM Research figures, the current median asking price for detached houses in Perth is $672,000, while apartments are $385,000. Meanwhile, Sydney’s median sits at $1.38 million (for houses) and $670,000 (for apartments).
Full Speed Ahead
Data compiled by the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia showed that Perth’s home value index lifted 1.6% in January, and was up 3.8% compared with three months ago, currently making it the fastest-growing major residential market in Australia.
Damian Collins, REIWA president and local broker with Momentum Wealth Residential Property, said the city’s property prices looked set to soar.
“The improvement experienced in the latter half of 2020 has continued into 2021, which is pleasing to see. With the pandemic continuing to impact travel and our local economy bouncing back after a challenging year, more and more West Australians are recognizing that now is the time to buy,” he said.
“Properties continue to sell at a faster rate than they did last year, with the median days to sell sitting at just 21 days, down from 43 days in January 2020. There is little doubt now that the Perth market has swung into the seller’s favour and buyers are needing to act a lot faster to secure a property,” he said.
Confidence Has Returned
Perth’s luxury real estate market is also currently experiencing a renaissance, according to realtor Mark Anderson of Hub Residential, a brokerage based in the West Australian capital city.
“We had a drop in confidence around May and June of 2020 at the height of Covid uncertainty in Australia, but that’s changed,” he said.
“In the $5 million to $30 million price brackets, I’d have to say that buyers at that level have a pretty good handle on where the economy is going. They’re looking at it from the point of view that this is a good time to trade, a good time to buy,” he added, attributing the positive sentiment to Australia’s record-low mortgage interest rates (the official cash rate is sitting at 0.10%) and Western Australia’s comparatively low coronavirus infection rate. (The state has recorded 907 cases and nine deaths since the state’s first reported case on Feb. 21, 2020.)
Mr Anderson said waterfront suburbs would be the ones to watch as home buyers and investors, including a wave of international ex-pats, seek out lifestyle properties in the wake of the pandemic.
“Towards the end of last year, for example, Cottesloe turbocharged itself in about 10 weeks and in some cases, the increases were anywhere between 15% and 25% year on year,” Mr Anderson said of the beachfront suburb where the median house price is now $1.95 million.
Located approximately seven miles from the city centre, Cottesloe is known for its more than half a mile stretch of white sand and waterfront restaurants.
“Some of these buyers see Cottesloe as a blue-chip investment, but ultimately I think people are asking themselves ‘Where do I want to end up?’ and the answer is the beach. I guess it’s a great example of FOMO,” he added.
Comparing the Markets
“Perth is just one of those really unique places in the world. I ask people when they’re buying a house here, ‘Why did you come?’ and they often say, ‘We love how it’s so spacious, it’s like a big country town!’” Mr Anderson said.
Perth’s population according to the 2016 Census was just under 2 million, while Sydney’s was approaching 5 million.
He said when international, and interstate, buyers stack Perth up against its more famous cousin, they often see more bang for their buck in Sydney.
“Our prices are really inexpensive given the fact that we’re so close to the beach, or the river. Our beaches are as good as Sydney, but the cost of living isn’t as high—and it’s relatively safe. We don’t even have as much rain, or the damaging storms that Sydney has,” Mr Anderson said.
On paper, the comparison also works in Perth’s favour. For Sydney’s median house price of $1.38 million, buyers in blue chip waterfront suburbs would get a modest attached two-bedroom home. In Perth, the same money could secure a spacious four- to five-bedroom family property on a grand block close to the beach or riverfront.
Often referred to as the most isolated city in the world, Perth is more than 2000km from the nearest city. Its property market is also unique in that global commodity prices play their part due to the significant role mining has in the state of Western Australia.
“What makes us think this time around we’re definitely going to see a pick up in Perth is what’s happening in the local rental market. Rents there absolutely plummeted in 2019 and 2020, but right now the vacancy rate at the end of December was just 0.9%. At its worst, when Perth rentals were majorly oversupplied back in 2016 and 2017, the rate was 5.5%,” Mr Christopher said.
As a result, rents are surging. SQM Research analysis shows house rents in Perth rose 12.7% in a year to $499 a week while apartments increased by 10.4% to $375 a week.
Mr Collins added that Perth’s residential vacancy rate has hit the lowest level recorded by the REIWA in 40 years.
“With the rental stock levels remaining low and expected to do so in the coming months, combined with low interest rates and expected gross yield growth, we will expect investor numbers to increase in the latter end of the year, particularly when the moratorium ends in March,” he explained, referring to the conclusion of a state-wide freeze prohibiting residential rental increases.
A City on the Rebound
Mr Christopher said that the Perth rental market has generally been the lead indicator for the residential sale market.
“You don’t always get that with other cities. In Sydney and Melbourne, you can have a weak rental market, but the [sales] market can still stay strong, and vice versa,” he said.
Mr Christopher explained that by 2019 there was no new construction in Perth, however employment levels began to increase due to a pick-up in local mining projects. Although projects paused briefly in 2020 due to Covid, it is now all systems go.
“Perth has been creating jobs, and still is creating jobs, but there’s been no new accommodation for the additional people coming to Perth,” he said.
Conversely, Australia’s other capitals have experienced a rise in vacancies and plummeting asking rents due to stalled immigration and international student numbers since the onset of the pandemic.
This, according to Mr Christopher, makes Perth more or less “coronavirus-proof” in the future.
“Perth traditionally doesn’t get a large share of international migration. Everyone tends to go to Sydney and Melbourne, so when Australia’s borders closed, Perth wasn’t hit as hard as the larger cities were,” he said.
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Georgetown agent Jamie Peva blends history and real estate on Instagram, turning local stories into a powerful sales strategy.
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Wed, Aug 26, 2026 5 min
5 min
On a recent morning in Georgetown—Washington, D.C.’s oldest neighborhood—real-estate agent Jamie Peva strode down leafy N Street, brimming with historical tidbits.
Jackie Kennedy once lived on the street, he said. So did Ben Bradlee, former executive editor of the Washington Post, along with a former Miss America and a powerful U.S. Senator. Bradlee’s widow, author Sally Quinn, and Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, own stately homes there.
“I’ve seen a picture of Lyndon Johnson coming out of this house,” said Peva, passing a Federal-style brick mansion. “Also, the Beatles went to a lawn party here.”
Peva, a 60-year-old agent with Washington Fine Properties, has sold Georgetown real estate for over three decades, often traversing the neighborhood by bicycle. Of the roughly 2,500 houses in the historic neighborhood, he has been involved in the sale of 460, he estimated. A self-styled historian of the neighborhood, he knows stories behind its houses and their owners going back generations.
With a knack for lively storytelling, he shares his knowledge with some 37,500 Instagram followers, who have made Peva—sporting the bow ties he has worn since boarding school—an unlikely social-media influencer. Many of his followers are locals, and most have no plans to buy or sell real estate—until they do. It is then, according to Peva, that his spirited reels bring him to mind.
“It’s the digital version of a refrigerator magnet,” he said.
After Peva’s first video in November 2023, his eponymous Instagram account sparked a 10% increase in sales volume in the first year, and another 20% the next, he estimated. “It’s been very good for business, there is no question about it,” he said.
But Peva’s posts have also made him a local celebrity. As he walked down N street, the driver of a Mercedes station wagon slowed down to honk and wave. A lady walking a large dark gray dog stopped to ask what he was filming that day (a reel about a Colonial-era bottling plant.) Peva knew the dog from walking his two springers, Jumpy and Peggy-O, in the neighborhood.
“I need to make a video about the pooches of Georgetown,” he mused.
A growing number of real-estate agents now use social media to sell, and some have millions of followers with reels featuring ultraluxury pads, selling tips or reality TV-style reports on their daily lives. While Peva posts about his listings—and sometimes those of other agents—he mostly focuses on Georgetown history, local businesses and community events, saying his goal is to benefit both his business and the neighborhood.
“If we don’t find something genuinely interesting and worth sharing, we won’t do it,” said Peva’s daughter, Violet Peva, a New York social-media strategist who films, edits and posts his reels. “We cover many topics, not just real-estate information.”
Peva is originally from Connecticut, but has lived in Georgetown for over 30 years, currently in a cottage-style house with a white picket fence. Over the years, Georgetown has changed. The Georgetown Set, a powerful group of Cold War-era residents whose Sunday-night potluck dinners are said to have swayed U.S. policy, has long faded away. The community is still home to high-profile Washingtonians, including a Republican senator and several cabinet members. But it increasingly also attracts technology and finance executives, according to Peva. He now routinely signs nondisclosure agreements, ensuring privacy for wealthy clients. The shift has made him rethink his marketing approach.
“For years, a big part of our Georgetown business was made up of people who maintained a low profile,” he said. Real-estate agents were similarly low-key. Today, curb appeal is more important, he said, and agents are promoting themselves more. “As this change was underfoot, I was thinking that I needed to evolve myself too,” he said.
Though his own social-media use is mostly limited to following sailing accounts, he asked his daughter to help him post his listings online. Violet, now 26, started coming to D.C. once a month to film his reels. After an early video, on a condominium building called the Elliott, her sister Fern called her to report: “Daddy’s blowing up on Instagram,” Violet recalled. The reel got over 50,000 views. The next two each drew over 300,000. Peva’s most popular post ever, with over 838,000 views, was about the Grateful Dead playing in Georgetown. Sometimes, Peva interviews Georgetowners such as Quinn, the author, or Jamie Stachowski, the owner of a local butcher shop.
Peva, who majored in history in college, now spends up to two hours a day on research, usually in the morning while on his stationery bike. Online, he pores over old newspapers or the Library of Congress website, and he has a collection of articles and books—in and out of print—about Georgetown.
Companies often approach Peva for promotional posts, he said, but he turns them down, feeling that followers would lose interest in constant commercials. One exception is a recent paid post on Mount Vernon, the former home of George Washington. Peva wanted to share its history, he said, and didn’t want to lose the opportunity to another Instagrammer.
Anthony Arend, a professor at Georgetown University, has lived in his current home for 19 years without any plans to sell or buy real estate. But he follows Peva and often likes his posts.
“He is very charismatic, he is energetic, and he obviously knows a lot about the community,” said Arend, who has referred house-hunting friends to Peva.
One of Peva’s biggest deals—the $10.5 million sale of a 19th-century Italianate mansion—came after he made two 2024 reels featuring the property. In March, he sold the longtime O Street home of Tim and Jane Matz for $5.8 million after featuring it on his Instagram. Peva had showed them the home 25 years earlier, with Violet in a baby carrier on his back.
Last year, Kate Watts, 49, a digital consultant, called Peva to sell her late father’s three-bedroom house on Q Street; her husband had seen Peva on Instagram. In an October reel, Peva praised the architecture of the house, designed by modernist Hugh Newell Jacobsen. Halfway through, he mentioned an open house the next day, ending with an upbeat: “Did I also mention this house is for sale? $3.75 million!” The reel got 27,000 views, the open house was packed, and the buyers made an offer at the list price on the same day.
