Fewer Buyers, More Listings: What Perth’s Market Shift Means Before You Make an Offer

Kixstart Property Brief | Perth Market & Buying

Perth buyers have more properties to choose from, homes are taking longer to sell and lending activity has softened. That does not mean bargains are everywhere. It does mean the way you make an offer should change.

For a long stretch of Perth’s property boom, buyers were taught a fairly brutal lesson.

See the property. Decide quickly. Make your strongest offer. Hope someone else did not offer more.

That behaviour made some sense when listings were extremely low, sale times were measured in days and buyers regularly found themselves competing against several other offers.

The market has started to change.

At the end of the week ending 16 August 2026, REIWA recorded 7,076 properties for sale across Perth. That was 8.7 per cent higher than four weeks earlier and 123.4 per cent higher than the same time last year. During that same week, REIWA members reported 605 sales transactions, down 20.4 per cent from the previous week. See REIWA’s weekly market snapshot.

One week does not establish a property-market trend. The broader REIWA data does.

At the end of July there were 6,718 properties listed for sale, up 101.9 per cent year-on-year. Perth houses took a median of 23 days to sell in July, compared with 13 days a year earlier. REIWA describes the market as moving towards more balanced conditions and says buyers now have more choice, more time and more negotiating power than they have had for several years. Read REIWA’s market analysis.

That deserves attention.

It also needs a reality check.

Perth has not suddenly become a buyers’ market

The increased supply of properties for sale does not mean sellers have lost control everywhere.

Perth’s median house sale price reached $950,000 in July, 18 per cent higher than a year earlier. The median unit price reached $681,000, up 22.7 per cent year-on-year. REIWA still expects prices to grow during 2026, although at a slower rate.

Demand also varies substantially between suburbs, price brackets and individual properties.

A well-presented home in a tightly held street can still attract several buyers. A poorly priced property needing substantial work may now sit for weeks.

Both can happen at the same time.

The useful question is therefore not:

“Is Perth going up or down?”

It is:

“What is happening with this property, in this suburb, at this price?”

That is a much better starting point before making an offer.

Why are buyers becoming more cautious?

Finance is part of the explanation.

The Reserve Bank left the cash rate unchanged at 4.35 per cent on 11 August, after increasing rates by a total of 75 basis points during 2026. The RBA says financial conditions are restrictive and are contributing to a slowing economy. Read the RBA decision.

The latest ABS lending figures also show softer housing-finance activity.

Total new dwelling loan commitments fell 5.4 per cent
Owner-occupier commitments fell 3.3 per cent
Investor commitments fell 8.6 per cent
Owner-occupier first-home-buyer commitments fell 2.9 per cent

The value of investor lending fell 10.2 per cent over the quarter. See the ABS Lending Indicators.

That does not mean every buyer suddenly has less borrowing power.

It does tell us fewer loans are being written and some buyers are stepping back, reconsidering budgets or becoming more selective.

REIWA is seeing the same behaviour on the ground. It says the combination of higher interest rates, cost-of-living pressure and greater uncertainty has made buyers more prudent and price-conscious.

For first-home buyers, upfront costs can also materially affect the budget. Our brief on WA’s updated first-home-buyer transfer-duty thresholds and possible refunds explains what changed and what to check.

For someone preparing to make an offer, that matters.

The biggest change may be urgency

When there were fewer than 2,000 Perth properties listed for sale at the end of December 2025, buyers had very limited alternatives.

By the end of July, listings had risen above 6,700. By mid-August, they were above 7,000.

That changes the decision.

If one property does not make sense, another may appear.

It becomes easier to walk away.

And being willing to walk away is one of the strongest negotiating positions a buyer can have.

This does not mean submitting deliberately unrealistic offers.

It means the fear of missing out should no longer determine the price you are prepared to pay.

Before making an offer, answer these six questions

1. What have comparable properties actually sold for?

Start with recent settled sales.

The same suburb
Similar land size
Similar house size and configuration
Similar condition
Similar location within the suburb
Similar development potential

Do not rely solely on the seller’s asking price.

An advertised price tells you what the seller hopes to achieve. Comparable sales help tell you what buyers have actually been prepared to pay.

2. How long has this property been on the market?

Time on market now matters more.

Perth houses took a median of 23 days to sell in July. That remains quick by historical standards, but it is substantially slower than the extraordinary conditions experienced earlier in 2026.

A property that has been advertised for several weeks without selling deserves questions.

Has the price changed?
Has an earlier contract fallen over?
Has buyer feedback identified a problem?
Is the property simply overpriced?

None of those automatically means there is something wrong with the property. They may tell you something about the seller’s negotiating position.

3. What else can you buy?

This is where increasing listings become useful.

Before increasing your offer by another $10,000, $20,000 or $30,000, look at the genuine alternatives.

If three comparable homes are available nearby, losing one property may not be particularly costly.

If there is nothing genuinely comparable, the calculation changes.

Negotiation should respond to the actual competition for that property, not a general story about the Perth market.

4. What will the property cost after you buy it?

This is especially important with older homes.

The purchase price is only the beginning.

A property requiring $100,000 of renovation is not equivalent to a renovated property selling for $100,000 more.

Stamp duty and acquisition costs
Immediate repairs
Renovation costs
Contingency
Finance costs
Rates and insurance
Building and pest findings
Planning or development investigations
Time before the property is usable, rentable or saleable

A cheap property can become an expensive mistake very quickly.

Our earlier brief on whether renovation still adds value in Perth explains why renovation value needs to be tested against the complete cost of the work and the likely finished value.

5. Are you buying the house or the opportunity?

An older property may have value beyond the existing dwelling.

Land size, frontage, access, zoning, house position and future planning changes can materially affect what a property is worth.

But potential should be investigated before you pay for it.

A large block is not automatically subdividable. A renovation opportunity is not automatically profitable. A property with development potential may still fail once construction, servicing, finance, approvals and end values are tested.

This is particularly relevant as WA considers changes to the R-Codes that could alter the development potential of some established Perth properties. Our brief on the proposed planning reforms explains some of the issues that should be checked.

If vacant land or a future subdivision forms part of the opportunity, our later 12-month Perth land-sales analysis shows why transaction activity and future absorption should be tested separately from headline price growth.

6. What is your walk-away price?

Work this out before negotiating.

Your maximum price should come from the evidence and your own numbers.

It should not be created in the middle of a multiple-offer situation.

For an owner-occupier, there may reasonably be some value attached to a particular location, school catchment, layout or lifestyle feature.

For an investment, renovation or development opportunity, the discipline should be harder.

If the numbers stop working, the deal stops working.

A rising market should never be relied upon to repair a poor purchase.

Conditions still matter

The frantic market of the past few years encouraged some buyers to remove conditions simply to make their offer more attractive.

That can carry substantial risk.

A finance condition, appropriate building inspection and proper investigation of planning or property issues can protect a buyer from risks far larger than the value of winning one negotiation.

The right conditions depend on the property and the buyer’s circumstances.

More balanced conditions may give some buyers greater opportunity to conduct proper due diligence rather than sacrificing protection simply to compete.

That is a healthy change.

What would make us cautious?

More listings do not automatically make a property attractive.

The asking price relies on old peak-market expectations
Renovation costs are being underestimated
Development potential has not been confirmed
Comparable sales do not support the proposed price
Significant defects remain unexplained
The property only works if prices keep rising strongly
A buyer is stretching finance simply because they fear missing out

The market changing does not eliminate property risk. It changes where some of that risk sits.

What does this mean for Perth buyers now?

There is a middle ground between panic buying and waiting endlessly for a crash that may never arrive.

Perth still has strong underlying prices.

But the combination of more listings, slower sales, restrictive interest rates and softer lending activity means buyers should now have more confidence to compare, investigate and negotiate.

That may be the most important change.

For several years, the market rewarded speed.

The next phase may reward discipline.

Do your finance work first.
Understand the property.
Check the comparable sales.
Cost the problems.
Know the alternatives.
Set your walk-away number.
Then make the offer.

Found a property worth investigating?

If you are looking at an established Perth property with renovation, subdivision or other value-add potential, Kixstart Property is interested in practical property and partnership opportunities.

Send us the property address, a short description and what you think the opportunity may be.

We start by reviewing the site, the market, the likely pathway and the numbers before deciding whether an opportunity deserves further investigation.

Start a property conversation

Principal sources

This article provides general information only. It is not real estate, valuation, lending, financial, legal, taxation, building, planning or investment advice. Property values, finance availability and market conditions vary between properties and buyers. Obtain advice appropriate to your circumstances before entering into a property transaction.