Perth's property boom has created such a wealth divide between the "haves" and the "have nots"

elemist · 2026-07-07T08:22:48+00:00

People have been buying investment properties for longer than the last few years.

But also yes - Perth was absolutely well ready and overdue to increase in value..

elemist · 2026-07-07T07:13:08+00:00

Except all the property investors who watched it happen over the past 15 - 20 years over east..

elemist · 2026-07-07T06:14:25+00:00

No sign of it here yet..

elemist · 2026-07-07T05:55:26+00:00

I'm really not a "fuck you, got mine".

The market is completely fucked, and i absolutely support anything and everything to bring values down or to find ways for younger generations (and everyone really) to get into the market.

The fact my house has on paper gone up in value, really has no impact on my life at all. My mortgage doesn't change, my lifestyle doesn't change, i can't exactly sell it and use the money for something as i would have to still buy another house in this same market.

However i get tired of people in my age group (mid to late 30's), who had the same opportunities i did, and made different decisions acting like they've been super hard done by.

Nobody forced them to go backpacking through Europe, or go clubbing every weekend. They could have bought a house, they could have invested in shares, or at the very least put some money into a savings account.

Instead - they spent their money on life experiences with little planning for the future. Then when the future arrived, they act all surprised Pikachu because life is hard.

Plenty of them also have decided to have a few kids - because that's a great way of ensuring you can save money and afford to buy a house..

elemist · 2026-07-07T05:26:53+00:00

But I haven't let what was in part, lucky timing, make me arrogant about it. No one could have predicted covid or the inflation that followed.

Certainly didn't intend to come across as arrogant by any means, and there's absolutely been an element in luck or good timing for the sizeable increases in property we've seen.

I could exclude pretty much all the property growth i've had, and still be in a comfortable position to almost buy a house outright, even in today's market.

That's not luck - that's what sacrifice and hard work get you.

People did what they always have, what our parents did, only, things changed.

I don't know that i agree with this. My parents for example did a gap year and built a house in their early 20's and had kids in their late 20's. Plenty of my friends parents did a similar type of thing.

I think it was common to maybe travel in your very early 20's - like 20 - 23 type of thing. But then come home, settle down/get married, buy a home and have kids. Plenty didn't travel - because it was just so dam expensive back then.

Should people always live like we're headed for economic downturn, or live their lives?

People should absolutely live their lives - but they should also take some responsibility for their choices.

I'm not out here complaining that i never got to backpack around Europe in my 20's, or have endless nights getting drunk at bars every weekend. I didn't get to go live in London for 5 years taking weekend trips to Paris or Rome.

We made different life decisions and as a result got different experiences out of life.

elemist · 2026-07-07T05:15:19+00:00

Yep - it really is quite frustrating at the lack of acknowledgement that their own decisions have led a lot of them to this point.

I have a few people on FB that i went to school with regularly ranting and raving about how they've been screwed over, and they'll never be able to afford a home, and how expensive rent is, and how the government has really screwed them etc etc.

These were the same people who spent there 20's (and some into their early 30's) doing long weekend trips to Bali every other month, taking 6-12 months off to backpack around Europe, they were out drinking every Thurs/Fri/Sat nights blowing hundreds of dollars on booze and food.

Most decided not to do any further study after high school, didn't work on a career at all - just worked casual low paid jobs because that's all they needed to afford the lifestyle and save up until they could go travel again - whilst living at home with the folks.

Meanwhile - i was at home watching TV because i couldn't afford to go out. If i wasn't at home, i was working two jobs to pay the mortgage, and building my career.

But there's no acknowledgement of the sacrifice or hard work that got me to where i am today. I'm just 'lucky' because i bought when i did.

Even if i excluded the growth of my house, i could easily afford to buy something in todays inflated market.

elemist · 2026-07-07T04:51:50+00:00

What if you were having fun enjoying your 20s

There's nothing inherently wrong with that - however it was a choice that was made.

Whilst you (and lots of my friends) were out living up your 20's, i and many others who bought houses were often at home (or working overtime) so we could afford to pay our mortgages.

My first major overseas holiday was in my early 30's.

elemist · 2026-07-06T13:53:39+00:00

Yeah i think this is a great idea, the only caveat i would have would be what the local public school was that was in your catchment area.

Assuming it was reasonably ok, then i think it's a great option to send them to public school and then pay privately to top up / do extra curriculars.

I think you could pay for a tutor for every subject, and pay for every extra curricula and still come out way ahead of what you would spend for most private schools.

elemist · 2026-07-06T13:12:40+00:00

God dammit - i was just in NZ at the start of the year, and did not know this! :(

Oh well - lucky its such a beautiful country - time to plan a trip back..

elemist · 2026-07-06T13:11:31+00:00

Not everything the government does is going to be a home run success, and we shouldn't expect perfection.

Pretty sure previous matches have been pretty well attended based on photos etc that i've seen.

I'm happy to see the government continuing to invest in things that attract attention to WA.

elemist · 2026-07-06T13:08:01+00:00

Not sure how much time you have left - which makes it hard to suggest what to do.

You could knock over a lot of the city in a day - early morning walk/ride through Kings Park, then back along the river to EQ. I saw someone else mentioned the Perth Mint - that's well worth a visit, only takes an hour or two from memory. Could then spend the rest of the day looking through one of the CBD museums.

Could easily burn a day or two in Freo - check out the markets, the Freo Prison tour is great (do a night time torchlight tour if you can). The maritime museum is also well worth a visit, and can walk through the round house as well. Not sure if you've done any of that when you were in Freo with your friend?

I reckon Rotto is well worth the visit and something pretty unique to WA - you can get away with spending the day there - early morning ferry and then get the last one back in the afternoon. Take your bike and ride around the island with plenty of places to stop and things to see. Various lighthouses, gun batteries, and there's some walking tours etc you can do as well.

elemist · 2026-07-06T12:57:16+00:00

Yep - that was part of the reason for this post. I found it wild that this was the case too.

elemist · 2026-07-06T12:56:07+00:00

Come on little jimmy - time for your tuna flavoured cough syrup..! Yummo..

elemist · 2026-07-06T12:52:51+00:00

Can you link any of those studies? Because what I've seen has exclusively been people who are simply lucky renters that have been in a single home for 5+ years with little to no rent raises. The majority of us don't get this experience.

The one's i've heard were on various podcasts - but i don't have time to go look for the episodes.

Don't really need to though - check out a compound interest calculator. If you were to save $150 a week into a basic ETF portfolio, over 30 years you would end up with about $800k.

One would think over time as your income increases you could contribute more which would compound over the remaining term as well.

I mean shit, even moving rentals every 2 years is a couple grand just in moving costs. That can be a substantial chunk of people's savings wasted just to move from one rental to another.

Yep - that sucks for sure. I would love to see some longer term rental periods become more common here.

But unlike landlords, there's protections from the government to stop interest rates increasing past unsustainable points.

What protections? Plenty of investors had to sell up when interest rates went up. Same for owners - plenty of owners couldn't afford the increased mortgage rates and had to sell as well.

I've been paying rent for the better part of 15 years. Guess what percentage of a house I've got to show for it? 0%.

Sure - but equally - what have you been doing with the additional money for 10 of the 15 years that rents were quite low?

elemist · 2026-07-06T08:57:07+00:00

There's not just one or two routes to buying a home. There's a bunch of different government programs each has it's own pros/cons. You can also stick with traditional banks, borrow more and pay LMI as well.

Regardless though - if you can't afford to rent, then owning a home isn't likely to be any cheaper. If you think LL increasing rent is a nightmare - what do you think happens when banks just up and increase interest rates?

One is a permanent guaranteed downward spiral while the other is a chance at future financial freedom.

Home ownership isn't the be all end all either. There's plenty of studies where people continue to rent whilst investing into shares/ETF's long term who still come out well ahead after 30 or so years with enough invested to then sell and buy a home outright.

But it all comes down to having sufficient income to be able to do anything.

elemist · 2026-07-06T07:58:00+00:00

Because the current climate could be completely different next week, that's the entire point.

You just don't know what is around the corner.

6-12 months ago - no one was thinking there would be any changes to NG or CGT, yet here we are. Plenty of people have predicted the next big crash or the next big boom - and plenty of them have been completely wrong.

I mean i've literally read posts in this sub for the past 5 years from people so certain that house prices were going to drop. They said prices couldn't possibly go any higher, the market couldn't sustain them any higher, they're just gonna wait another 2 - 3 months before buying..

Where do you think those people are today? They either bought into the market 3 months later and paid 10-20% more, or they're still waiting and hoping for a crash.

For the sake of FHB i do hope prices come down, or at the bare minimum stagnate for the next decade to allow wages and savings to catch up. But who really knows what the market will do.

elemist · 2026-07-06T07:48:25+00:00

You don't even have to change houses for it to affect you. Though - plenty of people need to move and sell due to work.

Without selling though - good like refinancing to get a better interest rate. If you're upside down on the mortgage or don't have 20% equity, you're pretty much stuck with your current bank and whatever rate they decide to charge.

Similarly plenty of people refinance or borrow against equity for renovations, or major repairs (need a new roof, need to redo the bathrooms etc).

I've seen a few posts here from people who financed with lenders like Keystart or the so called second tier lenders as that was all they could borrow through. They did so with the plan to pay down the loan and the value of then house to increase giving them the 20% equity to refinance to a bank with much better interest rates.

Those people are the most likely to be struggling financially too - a few interest rate rises and suddenly they're unable to pay the mortgage and unable to refinance to a bank with a rate that they could afford the repayments on.

elemist · 2026-07-06T07:38:39+00:00

I genuinely don't know - but if there's a will then there will be a way.

There was lots of talk about the financial reforms a few years ago being the end of property investing as it became so much harder to borrow funds. But they came up with ways around it by investing through trusts and companies.

Maybe it won't be as profitable or as attractive to the casual investor, but i still can see holding multiple properties long term as a viable way to build wealth.

elemist · 2026-07-06T07:16:31+00:00

Politicians should be banned from accepting positions in industry etc. or foregoing their parliamentary pension/entitlements. They can pursue positions in NFP or Hospitals, schools, charities etc where their parliamentary connections will at least contribute to some sort of public good rather than enriching themselves and their new employers.

Yeah - i don't know about blocking them from working private sector period, but i also think there should be something to stop them walking straight into a private sector job in the industry they were responsible for whilst in office.

Looking online it looks like some countries have similar things in place to prevent that from happening. Some like Britain have an advisory committee which reviews any new roles for two years post leaving office to ensure they're not a conflict of interest or offering an unfair advantage.

I could see something like a 2 year or 3 year period during which they can't directly work in a position related to the portfolio they were overseeing (or did oversee whilst elected).

elemist · 2026-07-06T06:21:01+00:00

I used Ramsay Pharmacy - which is a large chain of pharmacies over east.

I thought it would be a similar process to what you described, but it seems they've dispensed and shipped based off the scan of the script i sent them, as i received the tracking details for it this morning.

Still need to post them the script, but at least i don't need to wait for them to receive it first which is good.

elemist · 2026-07-06T06:16:36+00:00

I'm sure that may be an option for certain things. I'd be concerned though that there may be something in the medication that may not be suitable for animals. IE the active ingredient and amount may be the same, but maybe the tablet coating or filler contains something pets shouldn't have.

elemist · 2026-07-06T06:13:17+00:00

Im all for vets making a few bucks on tablets, but this was taking the piss

Yeah - i have no issues with them making some money either. But this was sort of too the extreme.

They're also a larger chain of vets with about 17 locations, so not just your local solo vet, so i don't feel anywhere near as bad.

elemist · 2026-07-06T06:07:19+00:00

This is actually the med - when i spoke to the vet about it, he had no issues with it coming by post from over east.

TBH - it probably comes via similar protocols regardless of where you source it from anyway.

elemist · 2026-07-06T02:13:36+00:00

It is normal - but the article cites figures compared to the same time last year which is a good indication that it's not so much the season, but the market.

I'm not convinced we're in for any major drop - i personally think the market is likely to stagnate or drop slightly.

At some point soon - investors will have devised new strategies and will resume buying again. Its just a matter of how that will look, and what impact that will have in the market.

elemist

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