Perth homes sales average 12 days

This is 8.8 per cent lower than in April and 29.3 per cent behind levels of a year ago.

The last time levels were this low was mid-2010.

Real Estate Institute of WA (REIWA) chief executive officer Cath Hart said despite 11 interest rate rises - including one last week - demand for housing hasn't slowed.

"Homes are selling in a median of 12 days," Ms Hart said.

"This is the fastest median time on market since we started keeping these records in 1998 and has only been recorded once before - in March 2021.

"And despite another rate rise last Tuesday, we expect demand to remain strong."

Ms Hart said there were several key factors at play, including: a growing population in WA, people choosing to buy established homes rather than tackle the rental market and increasing costs and ongoing delays in the building industry that were seeing people buy rather than build.

She said sales had out-paced the number of properties coming to the market for the past two months, which was seeing the number of homes available for sale on reiwa.com plunge.

"The number of sales each week has been 15 per cent higher than the number of weekly new listings since mid-April," she said.

"Since 2010, sales have usually been 15-30pc lower than new listings.

For sales to be this much higher than new listings is unusual and has only happened a few times in the past 13 years - and never for two months in a row.

"If this continues, we can expect the number of properties for sale to decline further."

Despite the drop in the number of properties available for sale, Ms Hart said there was no need for buyers to be concerned.

She said new properties were still coming onto the market in reasonable numbers.

"We did see the number of new listings fall in April," she said.

"But this was expected, as people are generally thinking more about the various holidays during April than putting their home up for sale.

"Numbers picked up again in May, but are not expected to rise significantly in the next few months - as they tend to be lower in winter and then traditionally increase in spring.

"The speed at which homes are selling is keeping the number of properties for sale low.

"I don't think people need to worry about missing out - properties are still coming on to the market, it just takes patience and persistence."

Houses remained the most popular purchase with buyers, with the number of houses available for sale falling below 2700.

The last time they were this low was April 2010.

Sales activity was greatest in the $500,000 to $1 million price bracket.

The $1m plus range remained fairly steady, but sales numbers declined in the under $500,000 bracket.

According to REIWA, the top performing suburbs for house price growth in May were Hillarys (up 5.8pc to $1.1m), Kinross (up 2pc to $632,500), Halls Head (up 1.9pc to $540,000), Secret Harbour (up 1.8pc to $539,500) and Melville (up 1.3pc to $1.002m).

Parmelia, Seville Grove, Warnbro, Golden Bay and Byford recorded growth of over 1pc.