Australian home values top $10 trillion

The Australian Bureau of Statistics said the value of residential dwellings rose by $221.2 billion in the March quarter 2022.

ABS head of prices statistics Michelle Marquardt said the value of homes had risen $1.8 trillion in the past 12 months, from $8.4 trillion in the March quarter 2021.

“Over the past year, growth in median prices in regional NSW and Victoria has outpaced growth in their capital cities for both houses and attached dwellings,” Ms Marquardt said.

NSW accounted for 40.1 per cent, or $4.1 trillion, of Australia’s total value of dwellings, followed by Victoria with 26.9 per cent ($2.7 trillion) and Queensland with 16.7 per cent ($1.7 trillion).

The strong growth has taken the median price of residential dwellings in Australia to $941,900, up from $920,100 in the December quarter 2021.

While the median house prices in regional NSW went up 29.1 per cent to $800,300 compared to 16.4 per cent in the capital, Sydney’s house value remained the strongest across all capitals at $1.2 million.

Similarly, regional Victoria outpaced its capital in terms of growth, up 17.4 per cent to a median value of $640,000, compared to a 9.4 per cent increase in Melbourne to a value of $930,000.

It’s a different picture for Queensland and South Australia, where their capitals saw the biggest growth 29.3 per cent and 23.8 per cent respectively, compared to 13 and 19 per cent in the regions.

Nationally, regional Tasmania saw the highest increase in value overall up 30 per cent, taking its median house price to $520,000.

Perth saw the lowest increase in house price values up 1.9 per cent, with regional Western Australia slightly behind at 4.9 per cent.

While regional Northern Territory didn’t see much change up 2.4 per cent, Darwin saw decent growth up 12.1 per cent – outpacing Melbourne in terms of capital city growth.

Despite the significant growth reported in the March quarter, there appears to be a cooling down of the housing market as the Reserve Bank of Australia begins hiking interest rates, currently at 0.85 per cent.

PropTrack’s Home Price Index reported home prices fell -0.11 per cent in May marking the first drop since the start of the pandemic.

[Related: House price growth drops in line with economists predictions]