Sydney leads capital city house price growth

Across the combined capitals, the average asking price for houses rose by 3.7 per cent to $1,044,400, as property owners responded to talk of a property boom driving prices north.

Zooming in on the capital cities, Sydney was propelled to first place following the highest monthly incline of 6.1 per cent to a median price of $1,497,400.

“We have also seen a strong rise in Sydney’s new property listings for the month, in part driven by having five weekends, but also because property owners are keen to take advantage of the buoyant conditions,” Louis Christopher, managing director at SQM Research, said.

Following Sydney, albeit with a large gap, was Hobart with an increase of 2.2 per cent, then Melbourne with 1.6 per cent, and Adelaide and Darwin with an equal 0.6 per cent.

Brisbane, Perth and Canberra all saw house asking prices decline, with Canberra recording the largest fall of 2.4 per cent.

Despite the slight incline, Adelaide still has the most affordable average house asking price at $542,800, followed by Darwin at $592,300, Hobart at $641,800, Perth at $667,900, Brisbane at $670,300, Canberra at $807,200 and Melbourne at $1,042,500.

Annually, all capital cities except Canberra saw an increase in house asking price, with Hobart leading the charge at 12.7 per cent – the only capital city to report a double-digit annual growth rate.

Sydney came in second with 8.5 per cent, followed by Brisbane with 4.4 per cent, Adelaide with 3.6 per cent, Darwin with 2 per cent, Perth with 1.8 per cent and Melbourne with 0.1 per cent. On the other hand, Canberra declined by 2 per cent.

“With low interest rates expected to prevail for some time yet, a benign end to JobKeeper and
many households flush with cash, we expect to see moderate to strong activity in the housing
market over this quarter, which will likely push house prices even higher,” Mr Christopher said.

Unit market lags behind

While Sydney led the charge in the house market, it still lagged behind in regard to its unit market performance, according to SQM.

Both Sydney and Melbourne saw monthly declines at 0.5 per cent and 0.3 per cent, respectively, which were driven primarily by an ongoing oversupply.

“[This leaves] some space open for first home buyers and investors to enter the property market,” Mr Christopher said.

Meanwhile, Hobart saw the largest rise at 10.8 per cent – surpassing the national average at 6.1 per cent.

Adelaide followed with a 2.3 per cent growth, then Darwin with 1 per cent, Canberra with 0.7 per cent, Brisbane with 0.4 per cent and Perth with 0.1 per cent.

Despite the monthly decline, Sydney still holds the title for the most expensive average unit asking price at $668,500 – surpassing the national average of $416,700 and the capital city average of $563,500.

Annually, Hobart still won the race with an increase of 22.4 per cent, followed closely by Canberra with 20.5 per cent.

All other capital cities saw increases in unit asking prices over the year, except Sydney which declined by 5.1 per cent.