Top WA public schools to bolster property recovery post-COVID-19
Suburbs with highly sought-after public schools will be among the quickest Perth real estate markets to recover from COVID-19, according to a leading property commentator.
Professor Steven Rowley, from Curtin University’s School of Economics, Finance and Property, said areas where there were quality government schools were likely to fare better post-pandemic.
“The good areas, the areas where people want to live with amenity, quality schools, geographical features, I can see those holding up reasonably well,” said Professor Rowley, who is also the chairman of Curtin University-based Housing Industry Forecasting Group.
“If you’re looking at the best public schools – Rossmoyne, Willetton, Churchlands, Shenton Park – people are desperate to live in those quality public school catchment areas and so you tend to get a strong demand in those locations and in inner-city locations.
“If people feel confident enough to go out and buy, these areas tend to hold up better than other areas because of that layer of demand.”
Willetton had largely been unaffected by the economic fallout of the pandemic.
“At the end of March when it was first announced that we couldn’t do home opens, we were a bit uncertain about what was going to happen,”
“But April, which was by private inspection only, was a record sales month in terms of the number of houses we sold and the gross commission we made. There was no change for us whatsoever.
“I put that down to Willetton Senior High School. At the end of the day, people still, regardless of what’s happening in the world, want to send their kids to that school. COVID-19 didn’t mean that all of a sudden that would change.
“When you’ve got one of the best public schools in WA, regardless of what’s happening in the world, you want your kids to go there. So, for us, we haven’t seen a change at all in Willetton.”
