Dethridge Groves Real Estate
Fremantle's Preferred Agent Since 1979
Welcome To DGRE
With over 44 years of service to the greater Fremantle community, Dethridge Groves Real Estate is your local expert in real estate sales and property management. Three-time REIWA award-winners in marketing and communications, DGRE has an expert team of real estate selling agents and property managers, led by former REIWA President Hayden Groves. DGRE is your preferred, trusted real estate partner, having sold and managed more homes in and around Fremantle than any other agency. Contact us today for your free market appraisal, property management services, market analysis and general real estate advice from the community’s leading agency.
Properties we think you'll love
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4 Bed
2 Bath
2 Car
Your Team
Principal & Director
General Manager / Sales Executive
Sales Executive
Sales Executive
Sales Executive
Sales Executive
Sales Executive
Sales Executive
Sales Executive
Business Development Manager
Leasing Manager
Sales Associate & Buyer Manager to Michael Harries
Property Manager
Property Manager
Property Manager
Inspections Manager
Client Communications Coordinator
Marketing Team
Executive Assistant to Hayden Groves
Marketing Manager
Latest News
Apr 18, 2024
Rental Reforms Pass
Significant changes to residential tenancy laws passed through parliament this week heralding a strengthening of tenants rights as they relate to residential leases. The following key changes will impact residential tenancies: Tenants will be allowed to keep pets and the property owner will only be able to refuse in certain circumstances. Tenants will be able to make minor modifications to the property without permission from the owner. Tenants may take an owner to court if they can demonstrate the owner has acted with reciprocity against a tenant. Rent increases are limited to once annually. The process of bond disposals can be commenced by either tenant or landlord. Disputes will mostly be heard by the Commissioner of Consumer Protection rather than the Magistrate’s Court. Rent bidding will be banned. Overall, the changes are moderate and align with tenancies laws in other states and territories. Importantly, the changes stop short of prohibiting ‘without grounds terminations’, a silly phrase used to describe circumstances where a tenant requests a further lease term after the end of a fixed term and the landlord refuses without giving a reason. REIWA conducted a survey into this particular element of the tenancy laws with an astonishing 61 percent of the 6,000-odd landlords surveyed saying they’d ‘consider selling’ the property if ‘without grounds terminations’ were prohibited. Given a fixed term lease has a clear end date, neither party should anticipate that an additional lease or reversion to a ‘periodic lease’ is assured. You don’t have to give a reason to end a fixed term agreement in any other circumstance, even a marriage! At a time where supply of rental homes are at crisis point across Australia, new laws that actively undermine the encouragement of supply risks further disincentivizing the main cohort of property investors; unsophisticated, family investors the majority of whom own one additional property other than their home. Given family investors provide 9 in every 10 rentals in WA, we cannot afford to discourage them. ...
Apr 11, 2024
Rental Market Tightens Further
This week, REIWA reported Perth’s residential rental vacancy rate dropped to a record low of 0.4 percent in March. A balanced market records vacancy rates at around 3.5 percent and in sharp contrast to early 2018 where vacancy rates were at 7.3 percent and over 12,000 properties were advertised for lease on reiwa.com. Today there are 1,963 advertised. Median Perth rents are at $649 per week with properties offered for lease below this figure in higher demand than those above the median. Accordingly, properties advertised at less than $1000 per week are leasing in about two weeks, whereas those at above this figure take about 21 days to rent. Core Logic shows Perth’s rental value is up 14 percent in the twelve months to March 2024, leading the nation amongst capital cities which averaged a 9.6 percent increase. Applied to Perth’s current median rent, a further 14 percent would see Perth rents hit $740 per week this time next year. The core of the problem is the shortage of housing supply at a time when migration levels into WA are rising contemporaneously with deteriorating construction approvals for new homes. Apartment approvals are at decade low levels falling to around 375-unit approvals last month against our 10-year average of about 725 units. Thankfully, investors are relatively active with 36 percent of mortgage demand in Western Australia coming from investors. This is up from the decade average of 24 percent and just 15 percent in 2019. The upside to this renewed investor enthusiasm is more rental stock coming into the market adding to supply, with the downside for first home buyers being investors buying stock that might otherwise have gone to them, which ultimately push up house prices. And prices are rising most in typical first home buyer regions. Remarkably, 8 of the top 10 local government regions across Australia for annual price growth are in Perth with the affordable regions of Armadale, Gosnells, Rockingham and Kwinana the top four performers up between 25.8 percent and 28.6 percent. Serpentine – Jarrahdale, Wanneroo, Cockburn and Mandurah all made the top ten up around 23 percent. In a balanced market, as house prices moderately rise, rents typically ease as first home buyers leave the rental market and enter home ownership. The opposite applies when interest rates rise and home prices abate, demand for rentals rise, pushing up rents. Today’s market is different. Perth is experiencing a renaissance of sorts after a prolonged period of negative or negligible growth from 2009 to 2019. During this decade, under-investment locally has caught us off guard with the speed of market recovery leaving us hopelessly short on supply during a time where construction costs remain a deterrent against meaningful and rapid increases in housing stock....
Apr 4, 2024
Perth Property Takes Lead
It doesn’t seem that long ago when Perth’s property values made us the cheapest major capital in the nation. At the time, it failed to make any sense that Hobart and Adelaide’s median house prices were significantly higher than ours given our low unemployment, high wages, lifestyle and economic strength. Two years ago, Perth’s median home value for the March quarter was reported by Core Logic as $525,800. The current median house value for Perth as reported this week sits at $703,502. In March 2022, we were the most affordable place in Australia to buy real estate with all the evidence pointing to Perth being on the brink of a property boom. Back then, buyers dabbling in the Hobart property market parted with $820,000 during the quarter, in our nation’s capital they paid $982,000 and in Brisbane $760,000. In Darwin, the median house price reached $583,000 and Adelaide put on a tremendous 7.1 percent spurt from the previous quarter to reach a median of $649,000. Melbournian buyers paid a median of $1,121,500 for a detached house and Sydney topped the list with an extraordinary median of $1,590,900 for the quarter. Perth’s median house price growth for the twelve months to March 2022 was 4.1 percent. Compared to the same twelve-month gains had in Hobart (31.5 percent), Brisbane (26.7 percent) and Adelaide (24.8 percent), Perth’s property price gains back then were comparatively modest. Perth’s annual house price growth is now a nation-leading 19.8 percent and showing no signs of slowing. Brisbane sits in second place at 15.9 percent, Adelaide 13.3 percent and Sydney (somewhat remarkably given their high median price) has put on a further 9.6 percent. Remaining capitals are still growing but by less than 3.5 percent. Usefully, Core Logic’s statistically references ‘series peaks’ demonstrating current market sentiment within the context of a ‘since -COVID’ cycle. Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth are the last remaining cities to be at peak since that time with Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart all having peaked in early 2022. It would appear Perth has some way to go with Adelaide’s median home value at $734,173, and Brisbane’s – the capital most typically value-aligned with Perth – at $817,564 with both still growing. I predict Melbourne will continue to constrict from its current $778,892 median value, Hobart’s anaemic growth at 0.3 percent could turn negative at the year progresses and Sydney’s growth pattern will stall. I punt Adelaide is close to peak growth and whilst remaining positive will only gain 5 to 8 percent over the next twelve months and Brisbane should continue its double-digit performance for the remainder of 2024. With Perth gaining 1.9 percent in March and 5.6 percent for the quarter, we could see gains of around 22 percent this year. Meanwhile, local rents are up 13.7 percent for houses and 15.9 percent for units. Housing affordability has deteriorated and will get worse before more supply arrives....
Mar 27, 2024
Love Thy Neighbour
In our secular society, Easter has lost some of its religious importance, but for Christians, it is the most important religious festival of the year. Christian values of love and forgiveness, whilst sometimes buried beneath layers of modern life, remain important foundations for a cohesive society. Our media is filled with stories that reveal the worst, rather than the best of us. A recent article I came across covered a boundary fence dispute between two warring neighbours. After about $10,000 in legal costs, neither side seemed any closer to a resolution with each party claiming the moral and legal high ground. Not much Easter spirit on display here. The exact detail of the boundary fence dispute is not revealed, but it is a shame that such a dispute has escalated to cost thousands of dollars and, more importantly, ruined a neighbourly relationship. Real estate agents are able to recount many stories involving neighbourly disputes and some sales occur due to neighbourly disharmony. Many neighbourly disagreements stem not from social disharmony, but from legal ones. The repair, replacement or alignment of boundary fences, Rights of Carriageway, the use of Common Property in Strata Schemes and Easements all carry certain obligations for those affected by them. Solving disputes with such matters is normally quite straight forward because there is either legislation that provides the framework for a solution or common law precedent that defines a prior legal decision. Sections 14 and 15 of the Dividing Fences Act WA 1961, for example provides detailed rules as to who pays for the cost of repairing a dividing boundary fence. Arguments may arise when one neighbour refuses to contribute but the Act provides a process for recovering monies due. Arguably more difficult is boundary alignment issues particularly in areas like Fremantle. I would wager that probably the majority of boundary fences of inner city housing in Fremantle are imperfectly aligned. In some cases, the boundary fence may be out by a significant margin. Such title encroachments can lead to the more complex legal matter of “adverse possession” under specific circumstances and whilst common in real estate vernacular, actual claims for adverse possession are relatively rare. Thankfully, neighbours prefer to live harmoniously and a misaligned boundary that has been in situ for decades in normal circumstances is often better left alone. The ability for neighbours to compromise over normally petty issues goes a long way to providing years of friendly “hellos” and a good supply of lemons from over the side fence....
Apr 18, 2024
Rental Reforms Pass
Significant changes to residential tenancy laws passed through parliament this week heralding a strengthening of tenants rights as they relate to residential leases. The following key changes will impact residential tenancies: Tenants will be allowed to keep pets and the property owner will only be able to refuse in certain circumstances. Tenants will be able to make minor modifications to the property without permission from the owner. Tenants may take an owner to court if they can demonstrate the owner has acted with reciprocity against a tenant. Rent increases are limited to once annually. The process of bond disposals can be commenced by either tenant or landlord. Disputes will mostly be heard by the Commissioner of Consumer Protection rather than the Magistrate’s Court. Rent bidding will be banned. Overall, the changes are moderate and align with tenancies laws in other states and territories. Importantly, the changes stop short of prohibiting ‘without grounds terminations’, a silly phrase used to describe circumstances where a tenant requests a further lease term after the end of a fixed term and the landlord refuses without giving a reason. REIWA conducted a survey into this particular element of the tenancy laws with an astonishing 61 percent of the 6,000-odd landlords surveyed saying they’d ‘consider selling’ the property if ‘without grounds terminations’ were prohibited. Given a fixed term lease has a clear end date, neither party should anticipate that an additional lease or reversion to a ‘periodic lease’ is assured. You don’t have to give a reason to end a fixed term agreement in any other circumstance, even a marriage! At a time where supply of rental homes are at crisis point across Australia, new laws that actively undermine the encouragement of supply risks further disincentivizing the main cohort of property investors; unsophisticated, family investors the majority of whom own one additional property other than their home. Given family investors provide 9 in every 10 rentals in WA, we cannot afford to discourage them. ...
Apr 11, 2024
Rental Market Tightens Further
This week, REIWA reported Perth’s residential rental vacancy rate dropped to a record low of 0.4 percent in March. A balanced market records vacancy rates at around 3.5 percent and in sharp contrast to early 2018 where vacancy rates were at 7.3 percent and over 12,000 properties were advertised for lease on reiwa.com. Today there are 1,963 advertised. Median Perth rents are at $649 per week with properties offered for lease below this figure in higher demand than those above the median. Accordingly, properties advertised at less than $1000 per week are leasing in about two weeks, whereas those at above this figure take about 21 days to rent. Core Logic shows Perth’s rental value is up 14 percent in the twelve months to March 2024, leading the nation amongst capital cities which averaged a 9.6 percent increase. Applied to Perth’s current median rent, a further 14 percent would see Perth rents hit $740 per week this time next year. The core of the problem is the shortage of housing supply at a time when migration levels into WA are rising contemporaneously with deteriorating construction approvals for new homes. Apartment approvals are at decade low levels falling to around 375-unit approvals last month against our 10-year average of about 725 units. Thankfully, investors are relatively active with 36 percent of mortgage demand in Western Australia coming from investors. This is up from the decade average of 24 percent and just 15 percent in 2019. The upside to this renewed investor enthusiasm is more rental stock coming into the market adding to supply, with the downside for first home buyers being investors buying stock that might otherwise have gone to them, which ultimately push up house prices. And prices are rising most in typical first home buyer regions. Remarkably, 8 of the top 10 local government regions across Australia for annual price growth are in Perth with the affordable regions of Armadale, Gosnells, Rockingham and Kwinana the top four performers up between 25.8 percent and 28.6 percent. Serpentine – Jarrahdale, Wanneroo, Cockburn and Mandurah all made the top ten up around 23 percent. In a balanced market, as house prices moderately rise, rents typically ease as first home buyers leave the rental market and enter home ownership. The opposite applies when interest rates rise and home prices abate, demand for rentals rise, pushing up rents. Today’s market is different. Perth is experiencing a renaissance of sorts after a prolonged period of negative or negligible growth from 2009 to 2019. During this decade, under-investment locally has caught us off guard with the speed of market recovery leaving us hopelessly short on supply during a time where construction costs remain a deterrent against meaningful and rapid increases in housing stock....
Apr 4, 2024
Perth Property Takes Lead
It doesn’t seem that long ago when Perth’s property values made us the cheapest major capital in the nation. At the time, it failed to make any sense that Hobart and Adelaide’s median house prices were significantly higher than ours given our low unemployment, high wages, lifestyle and economic strength. Two years ago, Perth’s median home value for the March quarter was reported by Core Logic as $525,800. The current median house value for Perth as reported this week sits at $703,502. In March 2022, we were the most affordable place in Australia to buy real estate with all the evidence pointing to Perth being on the brink of a property boom. Back then, buyers dabbling in the Hobart property market parted with $820,000 during the quarter, in our nation’s capital they paid $982,000 and in Brisbane $760,000. In Darwin, the median house price reached $583,000 and Adelaide put on a tremendous 7.1 percent spurt from the previous quarter to reach a median of $649,000. Melbournian buyers paid a median of $1,121,500 for a detached house and Sydney topped the list with an extraordinary median of $1,590,900 for the quarter. Perth’s median house price growth for the twelve months to March 2022 was 4.1 percent. Compared to the same twelve-month gains had in Hobart (31.5 percent), Brisbane (26.7 percent) and Adelaide (24.8 percent), Perth’s property price gains back then were comparatively modest. Perth’s annual house price growth is now a nation-leading 19.8 percent and showing no signs of slowing. Brisbane sits in second place at 15.9 percent, Adelaide 13.3 percent and Sydney (somewhat remarkably given their high median price) has put on a further 9.6 percent. Remaining capitals are still growing but by less than 3.5 percent. Usefully, Core Logic’s statistically references ‘series peaks’ demonstrating current market sentiment within the context of a ‘since -COVID’ cycle. Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth are the last remaining cities to be at peak since that time with Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart all having peaked in early 2022. It would appear Perth has some way to go with Adelaide’s median home value at $734,173, and Brisbane’s – the capital most typically value-aligned with Perth – at $817,564 with both still growing. I predict Melbourne will continue to constrict from its current $778,892 median value, Hobart’s anaemic growth at 0.3 percent could turn negative at the year progresses and Sydney’s growth pattern will stall. I punt Adelaide is close to peak growth and whilst remaining positive will only gain 5 to 8 percent over the next twelve months and Brisbane should continue its double-digit performance for the remainder of 2024. With Perth gaining 1.9 percent in March and 5.6 percent for the quarter, we could see gains of around 22 percent this year. Meanwhile, local rents are up 13.7 percent for houses and 15.9 percent for units. Housing affordability has deteriorated and will get worse before more supply arrives....
Mar 27, 2024
Love Thy Neighbour
In our secular society, Easter has lost some of its religious importance, but for Christians, it is the most important religious festival of the year. Christian values of love and forgiveness, whilst sometimes buried beneath layers of modern life, remain important foundations for a cohesive society. Our media is filled with stories that reveal the worst, rather than the best of us. A recent article I came across covered a boundary fence dispute between two warring neighbours. After about $10,000 in legal costs, neither side seemed any closer to a resolution with each party claiming the moral and legal high ground. Not much Easter spirit on display here. The exact detail of the boundary fence dispute is not revealed, but it is a shame that such a dispute has escalated to cost thousands of dollars and, more importantly, ruined a neighbourly relationship. Real estate agents are able to recount many stories involving neighbourly disputes and some sales occur due to neighbourly disharmony. Many neighbourly disagreements stem not from social disharmony, but from legal ones. The repair, replacement or alignment of boundary fences, Rights of Carriageway, the use of Common Property in Strata Schemes and Easements all carry certain obligations for those affected by them. Solving disputes with such matters is normally quite straight forward because there is either legislation that provides the framework for a solution or common law precedent that defines a prior legal decision. Sections 14 and 15 of the Dividing Fences Act WA 1961, for example provides detailed rules as to who pays for the cost of repairing a dividing boundary fence. Arguments may arise when one neighbour refuses to contribute but the Act provides a process for recovering monies due. Arguably more difficult is boundary alignment issues particularly in areas like Fremantle. I would wager that probably the majority of boundary fences of inner city housing in Fremantle are imperfectly aligned. In some cases, the boundary fence may be out by a significant margin. Such title encroachments can lead to the more complex legal matter of “adverse possession” under specific circumstances and whilst common in real estate vernacular, actual claims for adverse possession are relatively rare. Thankfully, neighbours prefer to live harmoniously and a misaligned boundary that has been in situ for decades in normal circumstances is often better left alone. The ability for neighbours to compromise over normally petty issues goes a long way to providing years of friendly “hellos” and a good supply of lemons from over the side fence....
