Safest suburbs to buy property in Perth

A first home buyer comparing three Perth suburbs before the weekend’s open homes can pull up the WA Police crime dashboard, type each suburb into the search bar and get an actual number back within seconds. That is a genuinely useful tool. What it does not do is tell that buyer whether they can afford any of the suburbs that come back with a low number, or whether a slightly higher figure in a cheaper suburb nearby is something worth worrying about at all. Those two questions, safety and affordability, tend to pull buyers in different directions once the initial suburb search is done.

This guide works through what the WA Police data says about Perth’s safest suburbs, what those suburbs cost to buy into, how the wider property market is performing and what local mortgage brokers are seeing as more buyers factor safety into their shortlist.

What are the safest suburbs in Perth?

According to data sourced from the WA Police Force public crime dashboard, Perth’s metro-wide crime rate sat at 9.2 crimes per 100 residents in April 2025, down 6.3% on the year before. Menora recorded the lowest rate in the city at 0.9 crimes per 100 residents, with Churchlands, Connolly, Iluka and Winthrop close behind at 1.3 each. Sorrento, Parkerville, Gooseberry Hill, Tapping, Rossmoyne, Leeming and Darlington all sit under 2.3, comfortably below the metro average.

A separate, broader view of Perth’s safest pockets pointed to a cluster along the western and southern coastal belt and outer hills, including Cottesloe, Peppermint Grove, Dalkeith, Floreat, City Beach, Applecross, Bull Creek, Kalamunda and Roleystone. These suburbs consistently reported some of the lowest combined crime rates per 100 residents in the metro area, though a couple of caveats are worth knowing.

Rates are calculated by dividing 12-month offence totals by ABS suburb population, which means very small suburbs can occasionally show volatile rates simply because a handful of incidents shifts the per-capita figure more than it would in a larger suburb.

For families in particular, several of these low-crime suburbs also sit within well-regarded public school catchments, including Rossmoyne and Churchlands, which tends to draw buyers for reasons well beyond the crime figures alone. It is also worth remembering that this data reflects reported crime only, so a suburb with strong neighbourhood watch participation or higher reporting rates can sometimes show a marginally higher number without necessarily being a genuinely less safe place to live.

What do these safe Perth suburbs cost to buy into?

Reputation is only half the picture, so it is worth setting price against it for four of Perth’s most consistently well-regarded suburbs: Cottesloe, City Beach, Floreat and Applecross.

According to Loan Market’s latest Property Market Insights report for Darwin, Cottesloe carries the highest price tag of the group at a median $3.71 million in May 2026, up 5% over the past year and 99.3% over the decade. City Beach follows closely at $3.59 million, up 7.5% annually and a striking 107.4% over ten years, the strongest decade-long growth of any Perth suburb in this bracket. Floreat sits at $2.53 million, up 7.4% over the year, while Applecross, grouped with Ardross, comes in at $2.27 million, up 7.7% annually and 95.9% over the decade.

Read together, this is Perth’s most expensive shortlist by a clear margin, and none of it should be mistaken for an entry-level buy. A reputation for safety in these particular suburbs comes bundled with beachside or river frontage and a price tag most buyers will need to look elsewhere to match, which is exactly why the broader list of safe suburbs matters just as much as the four here.

For comparison, suburbs further down the safety list but still well inside the metro average, such as Winthrop and Rossmoyne, sit at a noticeably lower price point than this waterfront group, often several hundred thousand dollars below Applecross for a broadly similar crime profile. Buyers who cannot stretch to Cottesloe or City Beach are not necessarily trading away safety to do so, just proximity to the coast.

How does Perth’s property market compare to other capital cities?

Perth’s median house price reached $1.02 million in May 2026, according to the latest Ray White Now data, up 14.3% over the past year and 100.4% over the past decade, a figure that has now doubled inside ten years. Units followed an even steeper climb, reaching $720,000, up 17.4% annually and 73.1% over ten years.

Set against the other capitals, Perth now sits mid-table on price but leads most of the country on recent growth.

Rents have kept pace. Perth’s median weekly house rent reached approximately $730 in June 2026, up 7.4% over the year and 82.5% over the decade, with unit rent at approximately $680, up 6.3% annually.

New listings eased 1.8% in June to 4,209 properties, though the annual comparison still points up sharply, 22.9% higher than June 2025.

Sales activity over the past 12 months has clustered in the $750,000 to $1 million bracket for houses, with over 13,700 transactions recorded, while units have concentrated between $500,000 and $750,000, suggesting this growth is being driven by broad-based demand through the middle of the market rather than a narrow band of luxury sales at the very top. More stock is reaching the market than a year ago. Buyers are not the only ones paying attention to this growth story.

What are Perth mortgage brokers seeing on the ground?

“A lot of my clients start with a suburb they have seen mentioned as one of the safer options, then get a shock when they see what Cottesloe or City Beach actually costs,” said Balpreet Bal, Loan Market Bal & Associates. “What I spend most of my time on is showing people the suburbs a little further out, places like Leeming or Rossmoyne, that carry a similar reputation for safety without the beachfront price tag attached to them.”

“Out in the growth corridors, the conversation is completely different,” said Brett Richardson, Loan Market Ellenbrook. “Buyers here are less focused on a specific safety ranking and more interested in whether their borrowing capacity keeps pace with how quickly this market is moving, since a property that felt affordable a few months ago can look very different today, subject to lender eligibility.”

Between the two ends of the market, the pattern holds. Buyers who understand both the safety data and their own numbers tend to move with more confidence than those relying on either alone.

Getting your finance sorted before you buy in Perth

Perth’s growth over the past year means the order buyers approach these steps in matters as much as the steps themselves.

1. Shortlist Perth suburbs using more than one crime figure. Cross-reference the WA Police dashboard against population size, since small suburbs can show volatile rates that a single number will not explain on its own.
2. Set a realistic Perth budget before you start browsing. With prices up 14.3% over the past year, a figure you saw for a suburb some months ago may already be out of date.
3. Speak with a mortgage broker about your borrowing capacity. A broker can walk you through what you could potentially borrow based on your income, expenses, deposit and lender policies, specific to the Perth market you are buying into.
4. Arrange pre-approval before inspecting properties in Perth. Subject to lender eligibility, holding pre-approval may put you in a stronger position in a market where well-priced listings do not sit around for long.
5. Inspect the property and the street properly. Organise building and pest inspections where appropriate, review the contract with your conveyancer or solicitor, and visit the street at a different time of day than your original inspection.

Common questions about safe suburbs in Perth

Here are some of the questions Perth buyers ask most often when weighing up safety alongside price.

Which Perth suburbs have the lowest crime rates?

According to the WA Police Force public crime dashboard, Menora recorded Perth’s lowest crime rate at 0.9 crimes per 100 residents as of April 2025, with Churchlands, Connolly, Iluka and Winthrop close behind at 1.3 each. The Perth metro average sat at 9.2 crimes per 100 residents at the same point, meaning all five suburbs sat well below the citywide figure.

Are Perth’s safest suburbs also the most expensive?

Some of them, yes. Cottesloe, City Beach, Floreat and Applecross combine a strong safety reputation with some of Perth’s highest median prices, several above $2 million. Suburbs including Menora, Churchlands and Winthrop offer a similarly low crime rate at a more accessible price point.

Why do small Perth suburbs sometimes show unusually high or low crime rates?

Crime rates are calculated per 100 residents, which can be volatile in suburbs with small populations. A suburb of 200 people recording four incidents shows the same rate as a suburb of 20,000 recording 400, even though one reflects a genuine pattern and the other is closer to statistical noise.

Is now a good time to buy property in Perth?

Perth’s median house price has grown 14.3% over the past year, among the strongest of any Australian capital, while remaining more accessible than Sydney, Brisbane or the Gold Coast. Whether now suits you depends on your own borrowing capacity and circumstances rather than the market alone, so it is worth speaking with a broker before deciding.

Ready to explore Perth’s safest suburbs?

To wrap things up, Perth’s crime data gives buyers something useful to work from, a genuine suburb-by-suburb figure rather than a citywide guess. Price tells a different part of the story, and the two do not always point buyers toward the same postcode.

A Loan Market broker can talk you through your borrowing options and help you work out what suburbs might realistically fit your budget, subject to your individual circumstances and lender eligibility.

Speak to a Perth broker today about your own situation.