Home values lift to $9.4tn

CoreLogic’s housing chart data for the end of March 2023, reported the total value of Australia’s 10.9 million residential home values rose to $9.4 trillion, from $9.3 trillion in February.

However, the residential real estate values remained below its $10 trillion peak recorded in April 2022.

This follows from the latest home value data, which showed home values lifted in March, up 0.6 per cent, following 10 consecutive falls.

CoreLogic data showed that dwelling values had fallen 8 per cent over the past 12 months (to March 2023) — marking the “largest annual decline on record”, according to head of residential research Eliza Owen.

Ms Eliza noted that, the fall in home values was felt more strongly in the combined capitals down 9.1 per cent, for the 12 months to February 2023, while combined regionals dropped 4.2 per cent.

Sydney and Hobart saw the greater falls down 13.4 per cent and 11.8 per cent (in the 12 months to February), with Melbourne close behind falling 9.6 per cent.

Home values in Brisbane and Canberra fell 6.8 per cent and 6.7 per cent for the year, while Darwin, Perth and Adelaide bucked the trend with Adelaide lifting 5.1 per cent.

Similarly, regional South Australia saw huge gains for the year lifting 13.2 per cent, followed by regional Northern Territory up by 5.6 per cent and Western Australia up 4.6 per cent.

Like their city counterparts, regional Queensland (-3 per cent), Victoria (-5.1 per cent) and NSW (-7.1 per cent) reported drops in the same reporting period.

Days on market goes up

While the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) hit pause on a cash rate hike in April, the 350-basis-point increases in under a year are having an impact on buyer demand, with median days on market on the rise.

Median days on market for capital city home are 34 days, up from a low of 19 days in the three months to November 2021.

The longer days on market were particularly notable in the regions, with median days up to 50 in the three months to March.

Hobart ‘star performer’ in two decades

As the property market is subject to rises and falls, the latest data looking back two decades showed every capital city had periods where median house prices fell, rose, or flat-lined, according to Property Investment Professionals of Australia (PIPA) board member and University of Adelaide property academic, Peter Koulizos.

Mr Koulizos analysed the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) median price of established house transfers from March 2002 to December 2022 and found that the capitals increased more than three times their values in 20 years, with Hobart the “star performer”.

“We always hear about the property markets of our two biggest capital cities because a large proportion of our national population live there, but when it comes to the performance over the long-term, they both are well down the leaderboard according to my analysis,” Mr Koulizos said.

He said the median established house price in Hobart was 5.9 times higher in December 2022 than it was in March 2002, with its median price soaring from $123,300 to $727,000 over the period.

Adelaide’s established median house price was 4.1 times higher than 20 years ago with its price increasing from $166,000 to $680,000.

Coming third was Canberra, where its median house price is currently 4.08 times more than it was in March of 2002 with its price growing from $245,000 to $999,000 over the period.

The three major capitals reported “stellar” results, with Brisbane quadrupling its values from $185,000 to $750,000; while Melbourne and Sydney’s more than tripled, increasing from $241,000 to $842,000 and $365,000 to $1.27 million respectively.

[Related: National home values record largest decline on record, CoreLogic]