Four suburbs join Perth’s million-dollar property set, but not where you’d expect

The number of Perth suburbs with a median house value in the million-dollar club reached a record high at the end of 2024, according to the latest data from Domain’s House Price Report.

Four Perth suburbs surpassed the $1 million price bracket over the December quarter, including Inglewood (up 8.1 per cent to $1.05m), Leederville (up 6.4 per cent to $1.03m), Riverton (up 7.1 per cent to $1.05m) and White Gum Valley (up 17.5 per cent to $1.14m).

Mapping shows there are now 65 Perth suburbs in the million-dollar market concentrated in the well-heeled western suburbs and stretching along the northern coastline of the metropolitan area up to Mindarie.

In the southern suburbs around Fremantle are a slew of million-dollar suburbs including Coogee, Melville and Bicton.

The most expensive suburbs are led by Cottesloe ($3.4 million), followed by Dalkeith ($3.39 million) and City Beach ($2.9 million).

In the Perth Hills there are two million-dollar postcodes — Darlington and Gooseberry Hill.

It comes as home price growth slows down across the country in the face of high-interest rates and with Perth ending 2024 with record-high house and unit prices.

Home Loan Experts senior mortgage broker Jonathan Preston said Perth has finished its catch up rally and was unlikely to continue to outperform significantly.

“Perth is no longer cheap, like it once was,” he said.

“My expectation is that the number of suburbs in the $1 million club will continue to climb in Perth, but the growth rate will moderate and perhaps be more in line with, say, Sydney or Brisbane for the coming few years.”

Preston said he believed the median house price in Melbourne would move back ahead of Perth.

“Perth was temporarily undervalued but long term I have us back at prices being highest in Sydney, followed by Melbourne, Brisbane, then Perth,” he said.

Mortgage broker Sheng Ye said with the Chinese economy in bad shape there could be a flow on effect for Perth property prices.

“The resources sector and the job market will feel the cold. WA is a resource state, and it contributes to 48 per cent of total Australian exports,” Ye said.

“The Chinese economic development in the last two decades have consumed most of WA’s exports, such as iron ore or gas.

“When Perth property prices are no longer cheaper, and the resources sector isn’t able to offer many highly paid jobs because of the Chinese economic downturn, there will be fewer people moving to Perth.”

Perth property prices are set to grow up to 10 per cent in 2025, according to REIWA’s 2025 property market quarterly update.

Chief executive Cath Hart said while moderate growth was forecast for 2025, there were a couple of factors that could impact market activity in the first half of the year, including the state and federal elections and interest rates.

“We know market activity often slows in the lead up to elections as buyers and sellers wait to see the outcome. This is especially so when housing is one of the key policy areas — as will be the case in both elections,” she said.

“The ongoing debate over when interest rates will be cut is currently causing some hesitancy in the market. Should interest rates decline in the coming months we are likely to see market activity increase.”

Hart said there had been a lot of talk about falling prices and buyer’s markets on the east coast, but conditions in Perth still favoured sellers and further price growth.

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