Kim Macdonald: Perth approaching property milestone that’ll make you feel like a pauper or a Rockefeller

Perth is about to hit a property milestone that will highlight both riches and misery. In February 2026 — about 250-odd days away — the median price for a stand-alone house in Perth is expected to hit $1 million. To reach the threshold, Perth houses need to grow about one per cent a month for the next eight months. It is a milestone Ray White economist Nerida Conisbee expects could happen for houses, which she claims are currently worth a median $922,000, as early as late 2025. It may feel unlikely that Perth will undergo any more price growth, given the extraordinary increases of recent years. But the fact that we are only the fifth most expensive of eight State and Territory markets indicates there is room for prices to move up, especially given our nation-beating wages. The impact of this milestone is two-fold. On the one hand, those who have paid off their house may feel like a regular J.D. Rockefeller once they join the ranks of millionaire. But before you start shouting yourself some acorn-fed ham and a bottle of Dom’s finest, let’s look at what $1m buys these days. In May, we saw the $1m sales of a four-bedroom home on a 510sqm block in Quinns Rocks, 41km from the city, and similar homes in Ellenbrook and Hocking, both 26km from the CBD. Last month there were also $1m house sales in Rockingham, Wanneroo and Coolbellup — all once maligned as lower socio-economic areas. Clearly, being a millionaire is not what it used to be when the term was popularised in the 1950s. (Fun fact — you would need about $30m to have the same buying power now that $1m had in Australia in 1950.) The other side of the coin is that families wanting to get on the property ladder will regularly face seven-figure price tags in the years ahead. So what can first-time buyers do to get around the prices? There is the option of buying in the regions, which still offer very good value. Older units can also be a good buy, with some even selling below replacement value. But the onus falls on the State Government. It needs to cut development red tape to help boost housing supply, and it needs to stop absorbing such a vast proportion of construction works on its pet projects.