Perth’s older, smaller apartment blocks are becoming a sought after asset according to global real estate agency Knight Frank.

The past 12 months have seen Knight Frank sell more than $20m worth of apartment blocks in Perth, across suburbs such as South Perth, Inglewood, Jolimont and Daglish.

According to Todd Schaffer, Knight Frank's senior director for Western Australian capital markets, the sales have involved blocks priced from $1.2m to more than $6.5m.

While some may think buyers are stockpiling the sites for future developments, Schaffer said the blocks had been purchased despite them holding a lack of future development potential.

“The sales are primarily coming from apartment blocks in established residential areas where there is little or no scope for larger scale residential redevelopment on the site,” Schaffer said.  

“Buyers are recognising the value in these properties and are opting to either hold or refurbish them and establish long-term, strong, reliable cash flows, with future development,” he said.

Schaffer said the majority of sales negotiated by Knight Frank had been cash based and saw strong attention from individual investors and small family companies.

Figures released last week by Domain Group revealed the median unit price in Perth at the end of June was $367,025, having fallen 2.4% over the previous three months.

In the 12 months to June, unit prices have fallen 7.4%.