Perth property: Stunning $5.95 windfall for family set to reap 1150 per cent profit with sale of humble home

A humble home in High Wycombe could emerge as one of the greatest property investments of all time for an unsuspecting family who are set to reap a 1150 per cent profit. The family bought the property for $475,000 in early 2003, and are now seeking offers from $5.95 million, enjoying a boost from a change in zoning from rural to industrial 14 years ago. If the listing price is achieved, as expected, the owners will enjoy a 1152 per cent jump in less than 23 years — or a compound annual growth rate of 11.9 per cent each and every year. Property valuations expert Gavin Hegney said he could not recall a more profitable property investment in all his decades of the industry. “It is an incredible outperformance of the market,” he said. “It would be very hard to beat this as a property investment.” But for the owners, the home was never about re-sale value. Property agent Belinda Farrell said the family bought the massive 9566sqm block, with a 350sqm home, because it was big enough to raise multiple generations under one roof. At present, four generations of the family live at the home. “It was always about the house,” she said. They clung on together even as their once remote rural outpost became the centre of a thriving precinct, amid a recent industrial property boom that has overshadowed even the residential market’s good fortunes. Over time, food distributors, structural steel operators, vehicle logistic companies, crane hire, pharmaceutical industries, bulk fuel haulage providers and the Red Dot Head office moved into the vicinity. In recent years, nearby Perth Airport commenced a $5 billion re-development and unveiled a long-term plan for its 250 hectares of developable land. But the cherry on top arrived three years ago with the completion of the High Wycombe train station only 800 metres away, as part of the $1.86b Forrestfield-Airport Link. The humble home’s profits are set to far exceed the relative boost at another home which hit the headlines recently — a Nedlands house that sold for $2.7m after the owner purchased it for $20,000 about 60 years ago. While that home saw a 13,400 per cent increase over six decades, the annual compound growth rate was lower at only 8.5 per cent.