Perth's Two-Speed Property Market: What Buyer's Agent Peter Gavalas Is Seeing Since the Budget

Perth has been Australia's standout property market for several years, up over 100% in some suburbs over the past five years alone. But since the Federal Budget landed in mid-2026, the market has started splitting in two: owner-occupier suburbs are holding firm while investor-heavy pockets are starting to soften. Chris Bates sat down with Peter Gavalas, Founder and Director of Resolve Property Solutions, to unpack what's changed on the ground in Perth.

Chris opened by welcoming Peter to the show, framing the conversation around a market that had cooled slightly since their last check-in.

Chris: Welcome to Street Secrets. I'm Chris Bates, in the studio today with Peter Gavalas from Resolve Property Solutions. We're going to the West Coast. Haven't been there for a while. Great part of the world, and today's episode we're going to be doing post-budget, middle of June. We did a few episodes over the last six to 12 months over there, pre-budget, and it's been a bit of a different world. I think it's important to delve a bit deeper into the Perth market, what Peter's seeing and Peter's experience over there. So thanks so much for talking to us today.

Peter: Hi, Chris. Thanks for having me on. Looking forward to having a good conversation with you about Perth and property and the current market situation.

From Civil Engineering to Buyer's Agent

Before getting into the numbers, Chris asked Peter how he ended up on this side of the property industry.

Peter: I'll probably go back to when I was young, before I was at school. My dad was a builder and developer, so I worked a lot with him in the building industry. He used to do a lot of his own developments, and you'd see what a good quality build looks like versus a cheap build, because he always built quality. That's a pretty good indication of what helps us now look at good quality products, and also what worked and what didn't. As I moved into finishing school, I got involved in civil engineering, and property was a big thing in that space too — land development, cost of building, soil classification, slope on blocks, drainage issues, whether a block is on a roundabout or a T-junction, whether it's got high voltage power lines. All those things really helped me understand and appreciate what a good property is, and any negative aspects of a property as well. Along with that, I've been investing in property for over 30 years myself, building and developing. All those skills have helped me come to where I am today.

Peter explained that the shift into buyer's advocacy came from watching people get burned by bad advice.

Peter: I've always been interested in property. I wanted to do something in property, but I'm not a salesperson, so I'm not there to sell anything. I looked at the buyer's agent space and figured this is probably good for me, because it's more of an advisory role — trying to help people make good decisions and not get ripped off. Sitting on the sidelines before this, I've seen so many people get ripped off by making bad decisions, buying the wrong properties, paying too much. The selling agent works for the seller, trying to get the best result for them, so trying to balance that off a little bit and having someone working for the buyer, making sure they're getting a good deal, a good property, in the right location at the right price — I felt there was a big space there.

Perth's Market in Mid-2026: Still Strong, But Cooling

Chris asked Peter to take stock of where Perth sits now, after a run that's seen some suburbs more than double in five years.

Peter: The start of the year has been very strong — we're up about 10 to 11% for the year to date. Obviously, since the budget changes, that's had an impact on the market. We had some factors that reduced confidence and buyer aggression a little: three interest rate rises, the war in Iran, cost of living pressure, oil prices — all those things have had a slow effect on the market. Then the Budget threw a bit of a curveball as well. So we've seen not as much aggression as we saw early this year, but it's still quite strong. We're still seeing upwards of 10 or 15 groups through most home opens on good properties — previously it might have been 30 or 40. What's changed a bit is days on market: that's gone from around seven days, to nine, to about 14 now. People are taking a bit longer to think about things, but overall it's still pretty quick.

Perth's micro-markets are also moving at different speeds depending on price point. Around 60% of Perth's stock currently sits below the one million dollar median, and Peter is far more selective in that segment than he is further up the price scale.

Peter: Every suburb is different, every price point is different. If we're buying under a million dollars, I'd be certainly a lot more cautious about what we buy, a lot more selective, pushing back a lot harder on the agent and pricing — especially with inexperienced agents who haven't been through a tough market. On the other side of the coin, the higher-priced properties, one to two million dollars, it's still very, very tight. Inner to middle ring suburbs of Perth are still very tight, listings are very low. It's interesting — we'll look at properties at three to four million dollars and there's still 30 groups through those properties, because it's very limited stock and there are lots of people trying to move into those areas.

How the Budget Reshaped Investor Strategy

The conversation turned to the Budget's effect on investors specifically, a group Peter said has splintered into a few distinct camps.

Peter: Investors as a whole have obviously pulled back quite a bit since the Budget, largely driven by “what's my strategy now?” Before it was buy and hold, negatively geared, capital growth — now we've got to rethink strategies. Everyone's different. Some people need negative gearing, so they've either got to buy something brand new or build something to get it. Other investors are saying these new changes haven't been legislated yet, so let's wait until they're legislated before we make any decisions — they're on the sidelines wanting to be more cautious. Then you've got investors asking whether buying under a trust is still the best structure, or whether they should buy under a company name instead. We've had maybe one or two who've completely decided to pull the pin, because property investing isn't going to work for them the way the Budget changes have made it. But about 20 to 30% of our investors are still moving on, still proceeding, because the changes won't affect their strategy or how they're set up.

Anyone weighing up how a shifting lending and tax environment changes their numbers is often better served talking it through with an investment property mortgage broker before locking in a structure, since a trust, a company, or personal name can each have very different borrowing implications post-Budget.

Peter also flagged a structural risk building in suburbs that leaned heavily on investor demand over the past few years, particularly as East Coast buyer's agents unfamiliar with Perth pushed clients into the city's outer suburbs.

Peter: We're seeing it now — a lot of buyers, East Coast buyer's agents especially who aren't from Perth and don't know Perth, pushing their clients into some $800,000 properties on the outer skirts of Perth. We've always avoided those areas because the issue is too high a proportion of investors. We're probably seeing a lot of inflation in those property prices because you've got an influx of buyer's agents and an influx of investors. A suburb that was good three or four years ago — people are still buying in because a Google search or a friend told them it's grown — but you're past it. Now we're starting to see a lot of investors pulling out of those markets, and higher stock levels. If you've got an existing tenanted property in those suburbs, it's going to be a real struggle to find a buyer, because it's ideally suited to first home buyers or local owner-occupiers, and investors aren't buying existing tenanted properties as much anymore. My investment strategy has always been buying in a market where there's lots of owner-occupiers. You're competing against owner-occupiers, but they're always going to be buying in that market — the last thing they want to do is sell the house they live in. If you're in a good area that's always going to be in demand with owner-occupiers, you're always going to have demand for those areas.

Chris connected this back to the government's own target buyer for that price bracket, noting that confidence has thinned across the board.

Peter: The first home buyers — they're the ones the government's been targeting for this price point — but the problem is they've lost a bit of confidence too, so they're not as aggressive as they were three, four, five months ago. They're going to home opens and seeing five or six groups instead of 30, and thinking, why rush to put an offer in?

The Risk in House-and-Land Packages

Peter warned that the same investor pullback is now spilling into new-build demand, and cautioned buyers to look past the marketing on house-and-land packages.

Peter: There is a lot of building going on — the government set a housing accord which we're not achieving as it is; I think we're 5,000 properties short every year at the moment. By putting investors now into the new-build space, you're creating a bigger problem, because we couldn't achieve what we could previously, and now there's more demand in that space, so we're going to fail it by even further. It's also going to put pressure on pricing for land and for building. I'm already seeing a lot of advertising and spruikers with house-and-land packages, and we'll probably start seeing a lot more of that — this Budget's really given them fuel. A lot of these characters aren't always above board; you think they're working for you, but unfortunately they're taking commissions from everyone along the block, which is pretty disappointing. You've really got to be careful when you're buying a house-and-land package — is it an area with a lot of new supply coming, therefore more competition? Even from the rental space, if you're buying into a new estate with 50% investors, you're competing with them on rental properties too. Don't believe all the figures that you're given — you need to see the hard evidence as well.

Why Owner-Occupier Suburbs Keep Winning

Despite the investor pullback, Peter was clear that the fundamentals underpinning owner-occupier demand haven't shifted.

Peter: The demand on the owner-occupier side has always been strong, probably since around 2019. Stock levels have really come down and opportunities have dried up, especially for people only looking in one, two or three areas for reasons like schooling or work. There's always been demand from owner-occupiers, especially in that one to five or six million dollar space — it's quite buoyant. You've got to remember, last year we could see 15 offers on a family home, and now some of those people who missed out are still sitting on the sidelines waiting for the market to cool off, or for more options — there aren't a lot more options, but there isn't the frenetic pace there was six to 12 months ago. The owner-occupier space is still strong; we don't expect that to change. The fundamentals haven't changed — high population growth, still got low stock levels. At the moment we're about 5,700 properties for sale, and you've got to remember 60% of those are below a million. A balanced market in Perth is probably around 12,000 to 13,000, so we're miles away from a balanced market. It is still a seller's market.

Rockingham and the AUKUS Effect

Chris raised Rockingham as an example of a lower price-point, investor-heavy corridor, and asked how Peter sees it playing out differently to the inner-ring, owner-occupier suburbs.

Peter: The good thing about the southern suburbs around Rockingham is investors will probably dry off down there too, because they're not buying those established properties as much anymore. There are still investors looking at properties that are close to positively geared — if you buy something for $600,000 and get $600 a week of rent, that's pretty good, pretty close to positive geared, so smaller properties, bigger blocks or strata in those areas will still be popular with investors. But the good thing about the Rockingham area is we've got the AUKUS project happening, so that's going to provide a lot of demand — there's going to be a boom in construction and workforce. I still think that pocket of town is good; they're still going to have some long-term demand, provided it all goes ahead. There's been a few rumblings, but at this stage it's all going ahead, and there's going to be huge investment in the area.

Numbers like these are exactly why buyers weighing up a positively-geared corridor against a premium owner-occupier suburb tend to get more out of the conversation once they've run the finance side past an investment property broker who can stress-test the cash flow against the actual lending environment, not just the rent-versus-repayment maths on a listing.

Where Buyers Get It Wrong: Suburb Bias and Street-Level Pricing

Asked what mistakes he sees most often, particularly from interstate and overseas buyers, Peter pointed to a local bias that outsiders simply don't carry with them.

Peter: Being in Perth, growing up in Perth, knowing Perth, we're a little bit biased in some ways — I'm not going to pay $2.5 million in a particular area. Whereas someone coming from the East Coast or overseas will say, this suburb is eight k's from the city, close to the river, close to the freeway, and they don't have that bias. For them it's not a cheaper suburb, it's a good location, a big block, a good property, and they're happy to pay for it — they see value the locals in Perth don't. Going down the track, do they lose value? I'd say they probably will, because the local buyers aren't necessarily spending their money in those areas.

The same caution applies inside a single suburb, not just between them. Peter used his own street in South Perth as an example of how sharply prices can vary within an identical postcode.

Peter: Not all parts of every suburb are the same. Take South Perth, where I live — not every part of South Perth is the same, not every part of South Perth is the same price. You can't look at a property in one part of South Perth and another in a different part and say that's the price, because they're very different parts, different prices, and the demand is different too. North-facing rear is always popular over here, and some people treat that as completely non-negotiable and will pay more for it. Being within walking distance to the beach in the western suburbs is a big factor too — the closer you are to the beach, the more value, the more you pay. If you pick Cottesloe as an example, the most expensive properties are on Marine Terrace. You go back one street and two streets, the values start to drop incrementally. You're not buying the same value in all of Cottesloe — go on the other side of the railway line and it's a lot cheaper, a different price point altogether.

Peter also described a ‘bridesmaid suburb’ pattern he’s watched play out more than once, where overflow demand into a cheaper neighbouring suburb eventually makes the original, pricier suburb look like the better buy again.

Peter: We've probably seen some areas where people can't afford to get into a particular suburb, and we've seen the neighbouring suburbs really take off — to the point where they've taken off so much that there's more value in the original suburb to begin with. Everyone goes, this suburb's too expensive, let's look at the neighbouring suburbs because they're cheap, and then everyone's looking at the same suburb, paying a lot, and we're seeing record prices there — and all of a sudden it's actually cheaper to buy in the original, more premium suburb, and that's when everyone refocuses on that. It takes a while for that mindset to shift back, though.

Perth's Infrastructure Growth Pains

Chris asked what challenges are emerging as Perth continues to grow, beyond the questions of price and buyer behaviour.

Peter: Traffic is certainly increasing, especially in the northern suburbs, because it's one of the fastest growing regions in Perth. We've got one main freeway that goes north — you could build it double the size and we'd still have traffic. In Perth we haven't been used to public transport as much; people ask me what it's like catching a train and I say I don't know how to catch a train to these areas, because we've been more focused on cars. I think there needs to be a bit of a shift in our thinking about catching public transport — that's the most efficient way of getting people from one place to another. One area we need to do better on, and where I think we'll see some growth challenges, is that our railway lines currently run pretty much north-south. We need to see more east-west railway lines to connect more suburbs to the main line and make it easier to catch a train, especially in winter, when a five or ten minute drive to the station plus a bus ride puts people off. If we can make trains closer to where people live, I think we'll see more people using them. In general, we have seen some infrastructure growth — the Ellenbrook line, the Yanchep railway line, the extra Thornlie line — good initiatives from the state government, but there's certainly more work to be done.

As the conversation wrapped up, Chris thanked Peter for laying out such a detailed, on-the-ground picture of a market moving through real change.

Chris: Peter, it's been a good chat. Obviously the Perth market — if anyone's moving over there, I think you're in very safe hands with Peter and the team, and I appreciate you coming on today.

Peter: No, absolutely, Chris. Appreciate the conversation, and thanks for having me on.

Sources referenced: Street Secrets, Episode 045, "045: Peter Gavalas of Resolve Property Solutions | Perth," published July 16, 2026, hosted by Chris Bates (CEO, Alcove), featuring Peter Gavalas (Founder and Director, Resolve Property Solutions).

Want more? You can find Episode 046 of Street Secrets here.

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