{"id":840670,"date":"2026-08-02T22:51:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T22:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/840670\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T22:51:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T22:51:14","slug":"first-home-buyers-still-face-uphill-battle-despite-perth-property-market-cooling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/840670\/","title":{"rendered":"First home buyers still face uphill battle despite Perth property market cooling"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is a sunny Thursday afternoon in the leafy inner-city Perth suburb of Mount Hawthorn.<\/p>\n

Tess McKenna is preparing afternoon tea for her four kids after getting home from a busy day at work.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Tess McKeanna has four children aged under 13. (ABC News: Courtney Withers)<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old gets them settled with some colouring-in at the dining table. Then, she starts scrolling.<\/p>\n

Ms McKenna works as a buyer’s agent.\u00a0 (ABC News: Courtney Withers)<\/p>\n

“It’s really hard, it’s a really hard market,” she said.<\/p>\n

“As a single parent, I feel like right now it’s very next to impossible for me.”\"A<\/p>\n

There is a limited number of affordable homes available in Perth.\u00a0 (ABC News: Courtney Withers)<\/p>\n

She is on the hunt for an affordable first home in Perth \u2014 something well under $1 million, in a good, established area with space for the kids.<\/p>\n

But she is not alone in that search; in fact, she is just one of thousands competing in a market described by experts as “messy”, “unaffordable” and “very limited”.<\/p>\n

Familiar with disappointment<\/p>\n

Ms McKenna understands Perth property well, because she analyses it for a living.<\/p>\n

Working as a buyer’s agent \u2014 a role increasingly sought by first home buyers to help with their search \u2014 she is in tune with the current challenges.<\/p>\n

\"Tess<\/p>\n

Ms McKenna is well-versed in the challenges faced by first home buyers.\u00a0 (ABC News: Courtney Withers)<\/p>\n

She knows all too well the feeling of scrolling websites, only to be disappointed the next day when listings are marked sold.<\/p>\n

She relates to the stress of searching for properties while going from rental to rental as cost of living pressures rise.<\/p>\n

“It’s very isolating, and there are not many options; you feel like you’re going backwards and you’re constantly having all this self-doubt thinking that you’re failing all the time,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The McKenna family is competing with thousands of others in a tough market. (ABC News: Courtney Withers)<\/p>\n

She has made her current rental feel like home with art on the wall and photos lining the fridge, but the last few years have not been easy.<\/p>\n

“A lot of the time I’m left sort of living pay cheque to pay cheque and month by month \u2026 and I’m having to dip into any savings that I potentially might have been able to put towards [a] deposit,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It just seems to get harder.”<\/p>\n

The buyer’s agent first started looking for a property two-and-a-half years ago. Since 2023, she has lived in four rentals.<\/p>\n

Advised to shop around<\/p>\n

The irony of helping others with the same problem she is facing is not lost on Ms McKenna.<\/p>\n

“The Australian dream is to own a home, so when it seems so out of reach for people and so impossible, I definitely can relate,” she said.<\/p>\n

“The fact that I can help other people do it [find a home] is awesome \u2026 I would love to do it for myself.”<\/p>\n

Tess McKenna helps others to find homes, but would love to achieve that for herself too.\u00a0 (ABC News: Courtney Withers)<\/p>\n

She said houses around the $600,000-mark close to the city have become almost non-existent, likely because Perth’s median house price is still stubbornly high after breaking through the $1 million mark in January<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Property analyst Gavin Hegney said he is now advising first home buyers in Perth to hold off and shop around.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Gavin Hegney is a real estate expert, property valuer and advisor.\u00a0 (ABC News: Courtney Withers)<\/p>\n

“If a normal cycle prevails, we should see a settling back in values over the next 12 months \u2026 prices are coming off a bit in some areas, and so there’s no sense of urgency,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It creates a little bit of uncertainty for first home buyers wondering whether they should be paying prices of today or whether the price will be cheaper in a year’s time.”<\/p>\n

Perth no longer ‘affordable state’<\/p>\n

Curtin University property professor Steven Rowley said Perth’s property squeeze had been driven by one factor.<\/p>\n

Steven Rowley is the director of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute\u2019s Curtin Research Centre. (ABC News: Courtney Withers)<\/p>\n

“We’ve had really strong demand, particularly from investors the last few years and there just isn’t the supply there,” he said.<\/p>\n

“[The] combination of a really struggling rental market plus very strong demand and low supply in the buying market has meant real problems for first home buyers.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Perth’s median house price surges through $1 milion mark<\/a><\/p>\n

Domain’s latest quarterly house price report has found the cost to buy a home increased by 9.9 per cent in the last quarter of 2025, to a median of $1,087,762.<\/p>\n

He said while Perth used to be considered “the affordable state”, that is “no longer the case”, pointing to substantial growth at the bottom end of the market.<\/p>\n

“We’ve caught up with Melbourne, we’re not that far behind Sydney, we’ve accelerated ahead of Adelaide \u2026 because of that demand-supply balance,” he said.<\/p>\n

He said some “generous government schemes” probably have not helped in terms of inflating prices \u2014 namely, the Help to Buy Scheme, the 5 per cent Deposit Scheme and WA’s Keystart program.<\/p>\n

Property analyst Mr Hegney also believes the federal government’s negative gearing tax changes in this year’s budget are not necessarily helping.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got two investors walking out [of the market] for every one first home buyer walking in \u2026 the problem is not all first home buyers are in a position to be able to buy today,” he said.<\/p>\n

Laser-focus on supply<\/p>\n

WA Housing Minister John Carey said he has a “resolute focus” on getting more supply onto the market.<\/p>\n

“As a government, you keep making bold decisions,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I accept that some of the decisions I’m making, particularly around enabling 50,000 subdivisions, do not resonate [with everyone].”<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

John Carey says he is determined to bring more property supply to market.\u00a0 (ABC News: Courtney Withers)<\/p>\n

Referencing proposed building code subdivision changes announced last month<\/a>, Mr Carey said “more medium density” was needed in WA.<\/p>\n

“We’re not taking [the West Australian] dream away from people, but what we are trying to do is create choice for young couples, first-home buyers who might actually want to buy an apartment that’s well-serviced, close to a public train station,” he said.<\/p>\n

When asked when it would get easier for first home buyers, Mr Carey said he “can’t anticipate the future”.<\/p>\n

“There isn’t a single silver bullet, but by god we’ve got to keep pushing out that housing and introducing new measures, new reforms, cutting red tape \u2014 whatever it takes,” he said.<\/p>\n

Cold comfort<\/p>\n

For Ms McKenna, it’s cold comfort as she continues her search.<\/p>\n

She has not given up hope completely, but the constant scrolling and missing out has worn her down.<\/p>\n

“I definitely do feel a bit defeated at times,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Ms McKenna says she still has hope and will secure a place.\u00a0 (ABC News: Courtney Withers)<\/p>\n

“I still hold hope that I will get there and I’m sure I will; I’m quite a determined person.<\/p>\n

“At some stage, there has to be some sort of change that’ll happen to make it possible.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is a sunny Thursday afternoon in the leafy inner-city Perth suburb of Mount Hawthorn. Tess McKenna is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":840671,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,413127,99,177821,413124,363956,86,235966,413126,413125,45,9570,9569],"class_list":["post-840670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-property-downturn","tag-business","tag-first-home-buyer-schemes","tag-first-home-buyers-in-wa","tag-perth-housing-market","tag-perth-news","tag-perth-property","tag-perth-property-for-sale","tag-perth-rentals","tag-wa-news","tag-wa-politics","tag-wa-pols"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=840670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/840671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}