Total residential housing values near $10.4tn: ABS

The value of Australia’s residential housing rose to near $10.4 trillion ($10,397.1 billion) in the quarter ended 31 December 2023, according to the latest data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

This has surpassed the previous historic milestone of $10.2 trillion that was reached in the September quarter of 2023.

According to the ABS, the total value of residential dwellings in Australia rose by $196.8 billion from $10,200.3 billion in the previous quarter.

The data revealed that over $9.9 trillion of the total value of residential dwellings was owned by households.

All states and territories recorded a rise in dwelling values during the December 2023 quarter.

The mean price of residential dwellings in NSW remains the highest in the country, at $1,184,500, up from $1.17 million in September 2023.

This was followed by the ACT at $948,500, Victoria ($895,000), Queensland ($828,300), South Australia ($731,800), and Western Australia ($727,900).

Tasmania and the Northern Territory recorded the lowest mean prices in the country at $653,800 and $489,200, respectively.

The bureau further revealed that the number of residential dwellings in Australia rose by 52,500 to 11,134,600, with the mean price of residential dwellings increasing by $13,400 to $933,800.

Australia’s residential property values have maintained a double-digit growth trajectory since the June quarter of 2023, which followed a period of slow growth after reaching the $10 trillion milestone in the March quarter of 2022.

However, the value of Australia’s residential housing stock has been increasing since March 2019, when the aggregate value stood at $6.6 trillion.

This was despite the housing value downtown between April 2022 and February 2023, where home values declined by 9.1 per cent according to CoreLogic.

The latest CoreLogic Home Value Index (HVI) revealed an increase of 0.6 per cent in February 2024, indicating positive growth trends across Australia.

This was an acceleration of 20 bps from the 0.4 per cent increase recorded in January, marking the strongest monthly gain in values since October 2023.

Excluding Hobart, CoreLogic noted that the gains were widespread, with every single capital city and rest-of-state region recording a lift in value across the month.

CoreLogic research director Tim Lawless stated that Australia’s housing values have been “more than resilient” despite high interest rates and cost-of-living pressures.

Lawless said that “the ongoing rise in housing values reflects a persistent imbalance between supply and demand which varies in magnitude across our cities and regions.”

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