01/09/2025
Let’s talk about the media fed “housing crisis”
The government and media say “look over here, inflation is down, there’s a housing crisis” because they don’t want you to look at the real cause, an AFFORDABILITY CRISIS!
📊 Market Monday — WA’s Media-Fed Housing Crisis?
Are there really no houses left in Perth/Mandurah? 
🤔Let’s break it down with the approximate numbers:
🏠 Around 5,600 properties for sale right now
🔑 About 3,300 properties available for rent
📈 That’s close to 9,000 active listings across the Greater Perth and Mandurah region today.
This isn’t a housing shortage, it’s an affordability issue. 💰
The Real Driver: Investor Behaviour & Yield Compression
Rental yield is one of the clearest indicators of whether a market still has room to grow, especially in an investor-heavy market like WA.
During the boom, rental prices spiked fast, and for a very short window, yields in metro Perth were well above average. But high yields don’t last long. Once every institutional investor, mum-and-dad landlord, and first-timer jumped on the bandwagon, yields compressed quickly.
Investors are happy with returns in the 4.5–5% range for low-risk metro properties. As competition increased, sale prices climbed, and yields have now settled around:
📉 4.5% for houses (approx.)
📈 6.2% for units (approx.)
🔥 Some high-yield suburbs like Orelia are still sitting near 7.9%, but that’s the exception.
The only time you consistently see 8–10% yields now is in higher-risk regional markets, such as WA’s North West, where vacancy risk and market volatility justify those returns.
🥚 Which Came First: High Rents or High sales Prices?
High rents came first.
Perth and Mandurah sales prices moved sideways for almost two decades while the east coast exploded because of supply and demand, simply put, more people wanted to live in the east than the west, that dynamic is now changing, When demand spiked here, thanks to population growth, relocations during COVID, and ultra-low vacancy rates - rents surged.
Those strong returns caught the attention of investors, leading to higher buyer competition and rising sale prices, until yields compressed back to more typical levels.
The Takeaway
This is not a “no homes available” situation. It’s an affordability problem. Unless there’s a major economic shock, a full-blown housing crash, or massive legislation reform on property investing and negative gearing prices are unlikely to drop. Demand is still high, but stagnant wage growth and compressed yields mean homes are simply becoming harder to afford, not harder to find. 🏡
🛠 Fact-Check It Yourself
Here’s how you can verify the numbers:
1️⃣ Go to realestate.com.au (not the app — use the browser).
2️⃣ Search for “Perth Greater Region” and “Mandurah Greater Region.”
3️⃣ Select All property types, scroll down, and tick Exclude Under Offer.
4️⃣ For rentals, do the same but switch to the For Rent tab.
And before anyone says, “but that’s mostly land for sale,”: of those ~5,600 properties for sale, only around 775 are land-only listings.
Want expert advice on how to sell or lease your home? Call Mandurah City Real Estate on 0457 545 214 📱
