Property prices fluctuate wildly across Australia

Sydney finished 2015 with the year’s strongest property price growth, according to December quarterly statistics from Domain Group.

The city’s median house price ended 2015 at $1.01 million after increasing 14.8 per cent during the year, while the median unit price increased 8.7 per cent to $656,000.

However, those statistics are slightly misleading, given that Sydney also experienced the sharpest quarterly declines in house and unit prices on record in the final three months of 2015.

Melbourne experienced its fastest rate of house price growth since 2009, with the median house price surging 14.5 per cent to $719,000. The median unit price grew more modestly, by 2.4 per cent, to $446,000.

Hobart also enjoyed its best run of house price growth since 2009, as house prices jumped 8.7 per cent to $360,000. Unit prices also jumped, rising 7.1 per cent to $268,000.

Adelaide house prices climbed 6.7 per cent to $494,000 – their strongest growth since 2007. Unit prices climbed 5.2 per cent to $310,000 – their strongest growth since 2008.

Canberra put in a mixed performance in 2015, with house prices rising 9 per cent to $652,000 and unit prices falling 2.2 per cent to $405,000.

It was a similar story in Brisbane, where house prices rose 4 per cent to $511,000 and unit prices fell 5.3 per cent to $360,000 – their biggest drop-off since 2000.

Darwin went backwards in both sectors, with the median house price declining 1 per cent to $637,000 and the median unit price declining 2 per cent to $407,000.

Perth was the worst-performing capital city in 2015: house prices slumped 4.5 per cent to $585,000, while unit prices dropped 5 per cent to $389,000. That marked the biggest fall in house prices since 2008 and the biggest fall in unit prices since 2011.

[Related: Sydney property market is delicately poised, says analyst]