Which cities are seeing more million-dollar homes selling?
While there has been a national decline in the number of houses and units sold for more than $1 million, one capital city is bucking the trend, hitting a historic high for the number of million-dollar houses sold. We reveal the findings.
According to CoreLogic’s Property Pulse data, over the 12 months to June 2019, 12.5 per cent of houses sold across Australia were sold for at least $1 million, down from 14.7 per cent a year earlier and significantly down from its peak of 15.0 per cent in March 2018.
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Over the same period, 8.0 per cent of units sold nationally achieved a price of at least $1 million, lower than the 9.4 per cent achieved in the previous financial year.
CoreLogic suggests that these drops in $1 million+ sales over the past year is consistent with the overall weaker housing market conditions, coupled with the fact that higher value properties typically suffered the greatest falls during the year.
However, one city still managed to achieve marginal growth of sales over $1 million.
Adelaide saw an annual increase of 0.7 per cent of housing sales hitting the $1 million mark – with this segment hitting a historic high. Over the financial year, 5.9 per cent of all houses sold in Adelaide were for at least $1 million.
The SA capital also retained the share of units achieving the figure year-on-year, coming in at 1.4 per cent of all units sold.
Darwin was the only other capital city to retain the same percentage of units sold for $1 million or more.
Overall across the capital cities, 18.4 per cent of all houses were sold for at least $1 million in the 2018-19 financial year, a 3.5 per cent drop from the previous year, and a 3.9 per cent drop from the peak in March 2018.
Regarding units in the capital cities, 9.8 per cent achieved a price of $1 million or more, which reportedly represents the lowest share since October 2016. In the previous financial year, 11.5 per cent of units achieved the figure.
Figures in regional markets showed slightly different trends, with the share of million-dollar house sales only marginally lower than the previous year, recording a drop of 0.4 per cent, and a 0.1 per cent increase in the share of units achieving $1 million or more in regional cities.
CoreLogic analyst Cameron Kusher noted that, overall, the number of settled property sales across the 2018-19 financial year fell by 17.2 per cent on the previous year.
$1 million+ sales by state in 2018-19 FY
Sydney
- 30.2 per cent of house sales achieved $1 million or more, down from 34.2 per cent a year earlier
- 16.4 per cent of unit sales sold for $1 million or more, down from 18.9 per cent
Melbourne
- 23.1 per cent of houses reached $1 million, down from 29.0 per cent in 2017/18
- 6.5 per cent of units sold for $1 million or more, down from 7.8 per cent
Brisbane
- 8.7 per cent of houses achieved $1 million, marginally down from 8.8 per cent the previous year
- 3.8 per cent of units were sold for $1 million or more, down from 4.0 per cent
Adelaide
- 5.9 per cent of houses sold for at least $1 million, showing an increase of 0.7 per cent from last year, where 5.2 per cent achieved the figure
- Units reaching $1 million remained the same year on year at 1.4 per cent
Perth
- 10.0 per cent of houses in Perth were sold for $1 million or more, down from 10.6 per cent in 2017/18
- 4.1 per cent of units achieved $1 million, an increase from the 3.9 per cent figure of the previous year
Darwin
- 2.4 per cent of house sales reached $1 million, down from 3.0 per cent the previous financial year
- Unit sales of $1 million or more remained unchanged from the previous year at 0.6 per cent
Canberra
- 11.5 per cent of houses in the capital sold for $1 million or more, down from 12.3 per cent the previous year
- 2.0 per cent of units achieved at least $1 million, down from 2.3 per cent in 2017/18.
Mr Kusher said he was confident in the prospect of improvement in million-dollar sales across the country in the future.
“Over recent months, we have started to see some stabilising of housing market conditions,” he said. “The data also shows that the largest improvement is occurring across the most expensive properties.”
“Assuming this continues over the remainder of the current financial year, the share of million-dollar sales, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne, may increase over the coming year.”