Western Australia is still trying to recover from its mining slump, yet industry experts are positive regarding the plight of its housing market. Four-week sales activity rose by 11 per cent across the 13 suburbs close to Perth's CBD, indicating higher consumer confidence.

Perth's median house price rose to $540,000 in the three months to December 2015 after a series of falls throughout 2015. According to the latest figures from the Real Estate Institute of WA, East Perth, Mount Lawley, and West Perth were the top-selling inner city suburbs.

"Falling prices have clearly affected buyer and seller confidence," said Dr. Andrew Wilson, chief economist of Domain Group. "Recent signs, however, are that the rate of decline of prices may be bottoming out. Buyers, particularly in the mid to higher price ranges, are reactivating, driven by perceptions of value opportunities for trade-up properties."

REIWA president Hayden Groves concurred with the forecast, even though he expects market activity to remain somewhat subdued for the rest of the year. "We've seen a shift over the past two years with sales volumes and consumer and business confidence lower than in previous years. But there are some early signs that the market is at, or close to, the bottom of the cycle," he said.

This is great news for buyers since several suburbs close to the CBD have median prices well below $500,000. Suburbs within Perth's 10-kilometre radius have a median price of as low as $386,250. However, buyer confidence will still be the key to seeing the WA property market rebound in 2016.

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