Opinion Piece

Unit buyers face 20pc fall in values, Unit lut hits home as price values tumble, Australian property slump deepens, the headlines say.

A headline sample from national mediain recent weeks paints a grim picture for anyone thinking about signing on the dotted line for a new apartments.

But there's an importantpoint being missed here. If you read these articles, and get past the headlne to the fourth, or fifth, or someting even the last paragraph, you'll find the truth - that while these headlines sweepingly refer to the Australian property market, they're actually talking about Sydney and Melbourne. 

A series of recent bank forecasts have tipped 20 per cent declines across the board in Sydney and Melbourne. 

But prices in Sydney are 75 per cent higher than they were a decade ago and in Melbourne they're 70 per cent higher.

It stands to reason that people who bought in the past two years in a market rapidly heading lower stand to lose the most, because they bought at the top of the cycle. They only stand to lose if they are planning on selling in the short term.

There's no such thing as a homogenous Australian property market. In fact, in recent years the WA property market has run stakly counter-cyclically to the Eastern States.

According to Colliers International research, the vacancy rate in Perth this month dropped to 2.6 per cent, its lowest point since mid-2013. 

That bodes well for future residential demand in our market and is a key indicator for improving conditions. 

Even with the introduction of borrowing constraints after the recent royal commission into banking, the Perth market has not experienced significant settlement issues. 

In the past two and a half months, Iris Residential's projects in the Perth market have achieved morethan $10 million in sales - underlining the fact tat buyers continue to see value in the apartment sector, and have the confidence to commit to that purchase. 

The premise of buying off the plan is that buyers can choose their preferredsign, aspect and location and lock in the purchase price. 

Unlike building a new house, an off-the-plan buyers pays a 10 percent deposit and no land cost, no rates, no progress payments to the builder, until their apartment is fully complete. The purchase remains the same and reflects construction and land price at the time. 

In Perth right now, these are both low. 

A down-sizer buying off the plan can sell their home at any time up until they need to settle on their apartment. That could be in two or three years.

With industry experts tipping a recovering Perth market over the next few years, this gives buyers the ability to buy low and sell high. For first homebuyers, it means the opportunity to buy at or near the bottom of the market and enjoy increased value over the coming years. 

When it comes to so-called national "property pain" headlines, don't believe the hype.

As far as WA is concernet, we've had our fall, done our time at the bottom and now, slowly, carefully, the signs indicate we're on our way up. 

Tanya Trevisan - The West - Opinion Piece