Brisbane and Canberra lead in overall performance
Brisbane and Canberra are emerging as the star
performers among Australia’s largest residential property
markets.
Brisbane is producing figures which confirm
the positive view of many analysts and investors. Its apartments
are the fastest-selling among the six largest cities and its
houses the second-fastest-selling.
Brisbane’s median price for homes (including
both houses and apartments) has risen 12.6% in the year to March.
But it still offers value, with its houses and units the cheapest,
except for Adelaide. Typical Brisbane houses sell around $370,000
and the average apartment fetches $280,000 (compared with $550,000
and $380,000 in Perth).
Canberra is the other market that stands out
for its solid performance. Its houses sell the fastest among
the six biggest cities and with the smallest discounts (comparing
sale prices with original asking prices). Canberra has also
delivered 8% growth in values in the year to March.
Melbourne continues to be the value market.
Its overall median (houses and units combined) is lower than
Perth, Sydney, Canberra and Brisbane (and we know from other
data that it’s also considerably lower than Darwin).
Melbourne’s median house price is $170,000
lower than Perth’s and the Victorian capital’s price
growth in the past year has been relatively subdued. There’s
clearly room for price growth, given the underlying factors
of population growth, solid economic performance and very low
residential vacancies.
Sydney is now showing signs of recovery. Its
houses and units are selling in time frames comparable to Canberra,
Melbourne and Brisbane – and there are indications of
price growth.
Three months ago we recorded that Sydney homes
were taking around 40 days to sell. More recently the days on
the market are closer to 30 days.
Sydney’s overall median price is now
2% higher than a year ago, after consecutive months of rising
median prices in February and March. But we need to see more
months of growing prices before we can be confident Sydney is
on the way back.
Perth remains our most expensive city –
but the price trend is sharply downward. Three months ago we
noted that the Western Australia capital was displaying all
the hallmarks of a market in decline, with sales volumes falling
and houses taking longer to sell.
Three months on and there is now evidence of
falling prices. The March median price was the lowest in Perth
since June 2006, after four consecutive months of falling values.
This comes on the back of an extraordinary decline in sales
volumes – the number of house sales in February was one
third of the levels in mid-2006, while unit sales have halved.
It now takes longer to sell a house in Perth
than anywhere among the six largest cities. It’s the same
with units.
Adelaide has the slowest market, other than
Perth, and has the biggest discounts overall – despite
having the cheapest real estate among the six biggest cities.
Adelaide has also recorded the lowest annual
price growth (6%), other than Sydney.
Kris Matthews is general manager for product and marketing
for RP Data. www.rpdata.com
