Les - what on earth are you talking about? You presumption of my...

Les - what on earth are you talking about? You presumption of my situation is as ridiculous as the last time you did it (that was you before right, making fun of my doing a Phd?). Well we actually just discussed how we are in no hurry to buy.

That might have something to do with driving by dozens of for sale signed every where in this city. Or perhaps it's the fact that had we bought a year ago, we would be looking at a 10.4% real loss in that time. Or maybe it's watching our recent home owner friends live like peasants to make payments, while watching themselves slip into negative equity. On a small, trivial note, maybe it is just that when the garage door opener broke last week, and the landlord fixed it for ~$1500, we didn't have to pay anything and didn't even think twice. Hard to say really ;)

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Back to the actual topic:

You are right re: growth, I foolishly thought immigration would be the source of all the growth, as most countries in our stage are below replacement level on birthrate alone.

On further research, growth rate is about 400k recently (~2%). So at 2.6 people per house, that equals 153,000 homes needed per year. so almost identical to how many were built. Chronic shortage indeed.

Now it makes sense why the REIWA president recently said there is no shortage in Perth (with 50% more stock for sale than usual, and rental vacancy rate at 3.2% compared to equilibrium of 3%).