WA news LIVE: Regional home buyers flock to Bunbury; Perth forced marriages tip of the iceberg

Bunbury was the top-performing regional centre for house price growth for the September 2024 quarter, according to the latest data from REIWA.

Its median house sale price rose 6.7 per cent to $555,000, up from $520,000 in the previous quarter.

Bunbury also saw the most growth over the year, the median rising 24.2 per cent.

REIWA regional spokesperson Joe White said Bunbury was attractive as a large regional centre with good employment opportunities, medical facilities and schools.

“I’ve previously talked about the role the Busselton Airport has played in the area, allowing FIFO workers and their families to enjoy a South West lifestyle,” he said.

“It is also very affordable when compared to Busselton and Dunsborough. Our members are reporting an increasing number of buyers who are finding these areas out of reach and are looking at Bunbury instead.”

White said the $650,000-$800,000 price bracket was currently the most active part of the market.

While the market remained competitive and prices were still rising, REIWA members were reporting buyers were becoming more price-sensitive, viewing multiple properties before deciding and being open about this with agents.

White said small changes in supply and demand led to this: firstly, more properties coming to market was giving people more choice and less urgency, reflected in the median sell time rising from 12 days to 14 in the September quarter.

Secondly, as prices had risen, eastern states investor activity had slowed, softening competition.

Seven of the regional centres recorded price growth over the quarter. Prices remained stable in Karratha and Port Hedland was the only one where the median house price declined.

Annually, Karratha was the only regional centre to record a decline.

Regional rental market

In the rental market, four regional centres recorded an increase in their median weekly rent over the quarter. Two remained unchanged and three saw a decline.

Kalgoorlie-Boulder recorded the most growth, its median rent increasing 8.3 per cent to $650 per week.

Forced marriage, sexual servitude, human trafficking and forced labour have been revealed as the most common forms of modern slavery in Australia, with around 8 per cent of alleged offences happening in WA and the overwhelming majority of the alleged crimes happening against women.

For the first time, the Australian Institute of Criminology has today released information on the nature and outcomes of reports of modern slavery in Australia, and the characteristics of suspected victim-survivors and perpetrators.

It collected data from the Australian Federal Police, Department of Social Services, Department of Home Affairs and the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions and found for the pilot period (six months in 2022), the AFP received 150 reports of alleged human trafficking, slavery, and slavery-like practices (modern slavery). Reports most commonly related to allegations of forced marriage (31 per cent), followed by sexual servitude (25 per cent), trafficking of persons out of Australia (21 per cent) and forced labour (18 per cent).

Twelve of the 150 were in Western Australia.

The stats follow news earlier this year of three West Australian men being charged over the alleged forced marriage of two teenagers in Perth, and of a mother being convicted of forcing her Perth daughter to marry the man who would become her killer.

Regarding the six months’ worth of alleged cases examined by the Institute, 94 per cent were female and 44 per cent were under 18.

At the end of 2022, 20 defendants had been charged with a total of 55 human trafficking and modern slavery offences.

The Institute’s deputy director Dr Rick Brown said this dataset highlighted the importance of data to respond to modern slavery in Australia, and the Institute would continue an ongoing, annual statistical monitoring program.

The full report is available on the AIC website.