They say WA stands for Wait Awhile, but these points from Urbis' recent Market Outlook Report highlight the 7 reasons why you might not want to wait at all.

We’re pretty unique here in WA... We’re not great at merging, we refuse daylight savings and you can drive and drive and drive (38 hours from Albany to Kalambaru) without leaving the state.

But also, we outperform Australia’s averages income, affordability and economic growth. Our resources sector (and zealous Premier) kept us in a little bubble through COVID and fortunately, compared to over east our economy hasn’t weathered too hefty peaks and troughs since.

Last financial year, we began to feel the investor spotlight direct to WA and sandgropers themselves are starting to come out of homebuyer hiding, too.

Let Urbis' Market Outlook: Western Australia tell you why: 

1. Liveability 

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) ranks the most liveable cities in the world across 5 categories: stability, healthcare, culture, education and infrastructure. If you’ve ever visited Perth this won’t surprise you, but in 2022 we received a score of 90.0 out of a possible 100! (Urbis, 2023). It’s no wonder it’s common for people who grew up in Perth to explore Australia or go abroad, but then come back “home” to raise a family. 

2. Economic Growth & Strength 

Our 3-year average growth to 2022 of 2.3% outranks all other Australian states, and the Australian average (Urbis, 2023). With international efforts like the “Build a Life in WA” campaign running to attract migrants for our significant pipeline of work, population and economic growth looks to continue. WA’s population at the end of 2022 was 2.83 million, 2.21 million of which are in Perth. The WA State Budget (2023/34) forecasts we’ll add another million people by March 2027 and the WA Planning Commission is aiming to accommodate 3.5 million people in Perth by 2050! These newcomers will all continue to drive demand for new housing across Perth.  

3. Affordability

High incomes, a strong job market and low unemployment (3.4% in April 2023) combined with a low median house price paints a pretty picture for housing affordability here. Home prices in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane range from 42% to 140% higher than that of Perth! (Urbis, 2023). 

 4. Key Projects

We mentioned the “Build a Life in WA” campaign that’s running, it’s because we have a huge state government pipeline of infrastructure investment on the horizon. This includes the H2 Perth hydrogen and ammonia production facility in Kwinana (>$1 billion in capital expenditure) and WA’s Biggest Battery ($155 millino) due to become operational later this year (Urbis, 2023).

 5. Trade-Friendly Time Zone

We’re handy to do business with. The GMT+8 time zone sits conveniently in line with populated areas of the Asia-Pacific region, and our ports export the majority of Australia’s sea freight – primarily to China (Urbis, 2023).

 6. Tourism

Although the lack of holiday jetlag on a trip helps for our northern neighbours in the APAC region, we attract visitors from all over the world. We’ve got the highest rate of visitor growth of all the Australian capital cities. They’re not just here to take a quick quokka selfie either, they’re staying an average of 4.8 nights each and spent approximately $14 billion in 2022 (Urbis, 2023).

 7. Resources & Energy

FIFO is an engrained way of life in WA thanks to us being an international hub for the global mining and resources sector. We’re the largest producer of lithium, iron ore and third largest of LNG. Renewable hydrogen is also an area to watch as we’re investing heavily in that, too (Urbis, 2023).

There’s a load more detail on the state of our state in Urbis’ Market Outlook: Western Australia report, you can download the full version for free here.

Want to jump on the opportunity to buy your own piece of this great state? Check out our most popular packages.

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