Entry-level properties in Perth cost more than twice as much as they did five years ago, with new data revealing first-home buyers should expect to fork out about $780,000 – a figure that represents the largest year-on-year increase in all capital cities.
Domain’s First Home Buyer Report 2026, released on Thursday, shows the average entry-price property increased by more than 22 per cent in the December quarter last year, up from around $639,000 in the previous three-month period of 2024.
Over the space of five years, the price has increased by 105.8 per cent from $379,000 to now sit just shy of $800,000.
Darwin recorded the next-highest December quarter increase at 21.5 per cent, followed by Brisbane (20.6 per cent) and Adelaide (20 per cent).
WA’s capital city also led the nation for largest increase in the price to purchase an entry-level unit, with a rise of 25 per cent.
First-home buyers in Perth can expect to fork out $550,000 for a unit, compared to about $440,000 in the previous December quarter in 2024.
The next-highest increase in units was in Brisbane at 24 per cent, followed by Darwin at 21.4 per cent.
However, the highest five-year increase went to Adelaide, where an entry-level unit cost about $275,000 in December 2020, compared to $508,000 at the end of last year for an increase of 84.7 per cent.
The latest Cotality housing affordability report also shows the national dwelling value-to-income ratio reached 8.2 in September 2025, compared with a 20-year average of 6.8. It now takes 11 years to save a 20 per cent deposit, and 45 per cent of gross household income is required to service a new mortgage.
Ray White Group chief economist Nerida Conisbee said home ownership rates were declining, particularly among younger Australians, and affordability pressures were a clear driver of that trend.
“Elevated price-to-income ratios point to increasing structural barriers to entry. Yet the market continues to transact,” she said.
“Prices remain resilient and first home buyers are still active.
“The issue is not that affordability has improved, but that access has become more conditional. Price-to-income ratios highlight the pressure, but they do not explain how participation is being sustained.”
The latest Domain data shows the average WA first homebuyer couple aged 25 to 34 will take five years and four months to save a 20 per cent deposit for an entry-level home in Perth.
The same couple would spend 42 per cent of their income on mortgage repayments for that home.
Conisbee said first home buyers were not typically purchasing the median dwelling.
“They are buying in the lower half of the price distribution. As affordability pressures increase, they shift further down that spectrum,” she said.
“This is visible in the sales data. Over the past decade, the number of houses sold nationally under $750,000 has fallen sharply, declining from around 248,000 in 2015 to roughly 153,000 in 2025.
“Entry-level detached housing has contracted significantly. In contrast, unit sales under $750,000 have held up more strongly, rising from approximately 77,000 in 2015 to close to 96,000 in 2025.”
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