WA will always be relatively strong imo. People seem to forget WA was doing fine before the latest mining boom and in the event of a decent downturn it will presumably just trundle along as before. There is also strong population growth as well with many coming from overseas from fairly well-off places such as the UK, South Africa, NZ etc. and they tend to be fairly financially secure with good employment prospects. But having lived here all my life Perth is definitely a city that you don't want to get left behind in. Many of the outer suburbs are places you might want to have an investment property in but you wouldn't want to remotely consider living in. Bad social issues and basically s***holes built on sand dunes. From my perspective the bulls have been proven correct. People that have bought 5 years ago are in a much better position than if they were trying to buy now. Are many of the properties a total rip-off? In my opinion yes. But that's irrelevant because there is a shortage of stock, population growth is strong, and the Chinese are buying (although they virtually never buy in suburbs perceived as 'unsafe'). The market is what it is. People are kidding themselves it will crash. Until the government deals with land shortage, negative gearing and overseas investment property will continue to be a safe bet. Having said all that I feel sorry for the average twenty year old who really has no choice but to jump on board.
