WA's first-homebuyer market has plummeted, sparking fears the State's housing industry is about to stall.
Data from the Office of State Revenue on first-homeowner grants show that there were 1334 fewer first-home buyers in April this year compared with the same month last year. "The artificial boom of first-time buyers triggered by the Commonwealth grant has now well and truly ended," Real Estate Institute of Western Australia president Alan Bourke said.
In addition to the scrapping of the first-homebuyer stimulus grant, he said a string of rising interest rates also contributed to the collapse of the market.
For the month of April the OSR data showed 728 first-home buyers bought an existing home and 260 decided to build.
This is in contrast to April last year when 1555 bought established homes and 767 built new ones.
The statistics show that it is not only the first-homebuyer market that is down, with sales across the board dropping 15 per cent in Perth during April.
Homebuyers Centre sales and marketing manager Jared Stone said that demand for homes was still high but buyers were finding it difficult to obtain finance. "The demand for first homes has not changed from last year but the difference now is that there are no longer any government grants and coupled with the wash-up from the global financial crisis, banks have tightened their lending criteria which is making it difficult for first-time buyers," he said.
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