As you know, here at Bobinoz we love a survey or a report. Hot off the press, today I came across the summer 2013 report from RP Data all about property prices in Australia.
First, who is RP Data?
In their own words, they are “the biggest provider of property information, analytics and risk management services in Australia and New Zealand“.
Last time I mentioned one of their reports, they were talking about falling house prices across Australia during 2011. According to their latest report though, Australia appears to have turned the corner.
As their report says in the introduction “After recording a 7.4 percent decline between October 2010 and May 2012, capital city dwelling values have recovered 3.3 percent over nine months following the May trough.”
The report also states during the latter part 2012 auction clearance rates have risen and both vendor discounting and the time it takes for a house to sell have been falling.
They also tell us that the Australian economy continues to do well compared with the rest of the Western world but, in spite of this, Australian consumer confidence is still low. At the moment, Australians prefer to save rather than spend and the National savings rate is the highest it’s been in 25 years.
Key statistics city by city over 12 months to December 2012
Sydney:
Prices up by 1.5%, with houses taking an average of 51 days to sell, units take 44 days. The median price of a house is $648,000 and a unit is $485,000.
Melbourne:
Prices down by 2.9% with houses taking on average 55 days and a unit 44 days to sell. The median price of a house is $502,000 and a unit is $428,125.
Brisbane:
Prices down by 0.8%, houses sell on average in 72 days, its 94 days for units. The median price of a house is $440,000 and a unit is $352,000.
Adelaide:
Prices also down by 0.8% taking on average 67 days for houses and 63 days for units to sell. The median price of a house is $393,000 and a unit is $320,325.
Perth:
Prices up by 0.8%, houses take on average 52 days and units 50 days to sell. The median price of a house is $495,000 and a unit is $399,000.
Hobart:
Prices down by 0.1% with houses taking on average 104 days to sell while units take 57 days. The median price of a house is $326,625 and a unit is $255,000.
Darwin:
Darwin has really bucked the trend this year. Prices have risen on average 8.9%, with houses selling in 57 days and units 74 days. The median price of a house is $575,000 and a unit is $422,500.
Canberra:
Prices have fallen by 0.4% with houses taking on average 52 days and units 68 days to sell. The median price of a house is $560,000 and a unit is $418,250.
Like me, you’re probably thinking these figures don’t really reflect the recovery suggested by the quote I mentioned from the report’s introduction. But the suggestion is that those prices have started to recover from June 2012.
So, here’s to 2013!
I think we have to remember that RP Data’s main customers are real estate agents and banks, so they are going to be looking for positives in the market wherever they can.
Regional Australia
That’s the round up of the cities, but it’s interesting to note that is quite a different story in the regions. RP Data appears to have broken Australia down into around 50 regions across the country. These regions are areas in each of our states and territories that are away from the capital cities.
Some of these regions appear to have performed very well indeed over the last year, much better than the big cities. Others haven’t done so well.
Here are some of the best and worst performers:
Best
- In New South Wales, Northern and Northern Western regions rose by 10.4% and 10.9% respectively.
- In Victoria, Wimmera and East Gippsland 13.1% and 10.1%.
- In Queensland, North West up by 16.7% and Mackay up by 15.5%.
- In Western Australia, Pilbara up 21.1% and Midlands up 10.7%.
- And in Tasmania, Southern region was up 8.9%.
Worst
Only 10 of these 50 regions had falling prices:
- Far West and Richmond-Tweed in NSW (-5.1% and -1.6%);
- The Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast in Queensland (-2.3% and -2.8%);
- Murray Lands (-10%), Northern (-8.3%) and South East (-1.4%) in regional South Australia;
- Lower Great Southern in Western Australia -9.2%;
- Northern and Mersey-Lyell (-3% and -1.4%) in regional Tasmania.
One other thing I noticed reading this report, there appears to be a quite definite trend towards units and away from houses. During 2012 nationwide, 40.4% of all approvals were for units and the other 59.6% detached houses. That’s a record high for units.
Perhaps the new Terraced and Semi’s will take off here in Australia.
So those are the highlights of the report. Food for thought, isn’t it? The report itself though is free and runs to 44 pages. It has way more information in it than I have given you and you can download your copy just by entering a few little itsy-bitsy details about yourself. Find out more on this page… RP Data Report.
Definitely worth a read if you intend going house shopping in Australia sometime soon.
