What a difference a year makes…. Western Australia’s property lawyers have gone from being pricing bottom dwellers to moving upwards both from an hourly rate and alternative billing perspective.
Hourly Rates
The $500 per hour tipping point that appeared to cause some concern for WA’s property lawyers in recent years now seems to have given way. Sure there still a range of lawyers in the WA legal market under this figure (22% to be precise) but the market has moved. Anecdotally that movement may well be towards the setting of higher hourly rates combined with remarkably aggressive fixed price fee estimates but there’s obviously an upward trend.
Perth Property & Real Estate Lawyers Pricing (Hourly Rates)
| Hourly Rate | Market Share |
|---|---|
| $400 - $450 | 8% |
| $450 - $500 | 14% |
| $500 - $550 | 12% |
| $550 - $600 | 10% |
| $600 - $650 | 27% |
| $650 - $700 | 14% |
| $700 - $750 | 9% |
Alternative Pricing
Fixed and capped fees sit as the preferred methods of alternative pricing in the Perth property legal market with 95% and 82% respectively using such methods.