Australia’s best property performers of 2021

According to Eliza Owen, CoreLogic’s head of research, the estimated value of Australia’s residential real estate had risen from $7.2 trillion at the end of November 2020 to a new high of $9.4 trillion in just 12 months.

“Strong housing market performance over the year was driven by multiple factors, including low interest rates, fiscal and institutional support for households, high household savings and relatively low levels of advertised stock,” she said.

Furthermore, sales volumes nationwide surged by 22.2 per cent in the 12 months to November, the greatest increase yet since 1989, to an estimated 614,635 units, the highest level in almost 18 years.

“Rates of housing turnover had also been relatively low for some years before these factors boosted housing demand, which may also explain the elevated volume of sales in the past 12 months, which at November was 32.6 per cent above the decade annual average,” Ms Owen explained.

Growth in regions and capital cities

Detached house values climbed 24.6 per cent in the last year, above the national unit value growth of 14.2 per cent. This was replicated in the regions where dwelling values rose 25.2 per cent faster than the combined capital cities at 21.3 per cent.

Ms Owen has attributed the disparity to a number of factors, such as extended lockdowns through 2021 and distant work practices.

For example, she cited “the quiet coastal suburb of Yamba, in the Coffs Harbour-Grafton region of NSW, [which] achieved the highest annual growth in units of suburbs across Australia, at 56.6 per cent.”

“Regional suburbs were represented in many of the top value growth tables, including Ocean Grove units in Geelong (up 41.7 per cent in the year), Fraser Island units in Wide Bay (up 48.2 per cent), and Campbell Town houses in Tasmania (up 50.5 per cent),” she reported.

In the four weeks leading up to 5 December 2021, a surge in vendor activity resulted in a huge increase in new listings, with about 51,000 new property listings added. This is a far cry from the average number of new postings over the previous five years of 41,800.

The number of auctions held across the combined capital cities also hit a record high of 4,251 in the week of 28 November, only to be surpassed two weeks later when nearly 5,000 properties were auctioned.

However, Ms Owen has highlighted weakening growth trends despite the initial strong performance early in 2021, with many of the factors that drove the upswing slowly fading in the second half of the year.

“The constraints of slightly tighter credit conditions, the erosion of housing affordability and a higher level of listings being added to the market are expected to see softer growth rates across property values in 2022,” she enumerated.

Ms Owen pointed out that “these forces are an accumulation of headwinds for property market performance. Softer growth rates are likely to coincide with fewer purchases, where sales and listings activity eventually move with momentum in prices.”

National House Highlights

National Unit Highlights

Highest median unit value	Point Piper (NSW) - $3,216,796
Lowest median unit value	Woree (QLD) - $158,846
Highest 12-month change in median unit value	Yamba (NSW) – 56.6 per cent
Highest 12-month change in unit rents	Narooma (NSW) – 33.7 per cent
Highest gross rental yield units	Woree (QLD) – 10.7 per cent You need to be a member to post comments. Become a member for free today! Related articles Author Noemi Pamintuan-jara Know more More from this writer: Construction costs reach highest level since GST implementation 10 economic powerhouses boasting strong property markets 20 Perth suburbs with the most impressive turnarounds post-pandemic Mixed bag for home values as Australia shifts to multi-speed market The basic principles that can become a 31-property portfolio Most expensive and most affordable rental suburbs in Australia’s capital cities What’s the likely outcome of a cash rate hike for investors?