Perth is the focus of this research but it is relevant to homes all over Australia.

The Perth’s love of big houses was bad for the environment according to Masters of Environmental Design researcher Dirima Cuthbert from the University of Western Australia.

Ms Cuthbert said many Perth houses were not energy efficient and building regulations did not encourage home builders to change their ways.

“We’ve been programmed to think you’ve ‘arrived’ if you get a big house, that it proves that you’ve done something good with your life,” she said.

“You find a couple will get a four or five bedroom home with two to three bathrooms.”

But she said all that space was not necessarily used very often.

“Usually when you weigh up the time use against the capacity it doesn’t weigh up,” Ms Cuthbert said.

She said most people spent a lot of their time away from their homes anyway, which meant there was even less reason to have so much space in their homes.

Ms Cuthbert suggested rather than buying bigger homes, people create multifunctional rooms.

“People tend to have a separate spare room and entertainment area, why not combine them,” she said.

“In the old days the games room doubled as an overflow room for guests.”

She also said that purpose built rooms such as entertainment rooms were difficult to re-purpose later if built with no windows like many are today.

Ms Cuthbert said her home, which accommodated herself, her husband and two children was 100sqm.

She suggested that up to 200sqm was adequate for a family of her size but pointed out that the average house in WA was 250sqm and many of those with houses that size would be singles or couples without children.

Ms Cuthbert said if people bought smaller houses, they may not find it so difficult to enter the property market.

In a survey of 400 Perth metropolitan homes, Ms Cuthbert found project home designs had changed little in 200 years, except to abandon traditional features that made them more energy efficient.

She said energy-saving verandas, deep eaves and high ceilings had all but disappeared in new housing developments.

In their place, bigger floor spaces, dark roofs, low ceilings and double-brick walls had made air conditioning a necessity.

“If people chose their houses like they choose their cars, we might see project homes ? which now represent 80 per cent of new houses being built in Perth ? develop new ways of reducing energy consumption,” Ms Cuthbert said.

“Preliminary survey results suggested the answer was not encouraging people to do the right thing and reduce energy consumption for the sake of climate change but changing people’s desires.”

Source: SMH – Aleisha Orr – Feb 27th 2012

Perth median house prices were down 1.6 percent to $524,055. Rental yields in Perth have increased considerably in the last year, reflecting the nation-leading fall in property prices. Median house prices in Perth fell by 5.7 percent for the year ending September 2011 to $524,055.

Gross yields for apartments in the September quarter were 5.2 percent and 4.6 percent for houses. With all the hype around the mining industry, anyone would be forgiven for wondering where all the benefits are being seen – housing markets are generally slow, consumer confidence is low and everyone is saving rather than spending.  However, the good news on the resources front is that the mining boom is real and many housing markets around the resources centres of WA are tight in real estate terms.

Expect a significant revival in the Perth housing market next year, with price growth driven by the full arrival of the mining boom, is the general consensus. International and interstate migration levels have been slow; although above average population growth is set to continue

While international and interstate migration levels slow continue to slow down. The “China factor” remains a major contributor to buyer confidence and that has had mixed and confusing indicators since the August sell off in global stock markets. Some real estate agents suggest that the global stock market trend is a good leading indicator for Perth house prices, given the linkages between commodity prices, share prices and mining company activity.

After strong population growth of 3.1% in WA in the year to June 2009-10, growth has slowed. Population growth in WA was 1.1%, or 2.6% for the calendar year. Average growth since 2002 is 2% per annum. While international migration remains the driver of WA’s population growth, annual growth to December 2010 declined.

The surge in WA’s population growth from late 2004 resulted in the state supplying less housing than what was required for the most part of the last four years. Despite some over supply in the early 2000s, the shortfall in recent years suggests continued undersupply in this market.

Although median prices for both houses and units in Perth were at their highest levels on record in March 2010, according to REIA, the latest set of data showed declines.  Rising interest rates and continued price increases until the recent two quarters put further pressure on affordability.

The proportion of income required to meet average monthly mortgage repayments in WA has increased from 25.9% a year ago to 28.2% in March 2011. WA remains the third most affordable state, behind the NT and ACT. Increasing interest rates and an increase in the average loan size the percentage of family income required to meet mortgage repayments are expected to reach around 32% by the end of 2011. This may stabilise and decline on the short term as some indications are showing rising incomes in the state.

There seems to be alot of talk at the moment that Perth Apartment market is about to head into another boom period over the next 12 – 18 months. Would be great to get your thoughts? please make your comments below:

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