Forrestfield 
The property market has been as fascinating as ever this year under changing economic conditions, rising interest rates and the construction industry slowdown.
The following are some updates and statistics from the last quarter and twelve-month period.
Overall property figures in Australia
Did you know Australia has 11 million homes? With a population of 25.69 million, that means there are around 2.3 people per household.
In the three months to July this year, average property prices in Australia rose by 2.9 per cent.
If you split July figures by region/capital city, combined capital growth was 3.5 per cent, while regional areas rose by 1.2 per cent.
The cities that rose in value the most over the last quarter were Sydney and Brisbane, while South Australia and Queensland were the top regional performers.
Looking at year on year figures, overall values are down by 3.4 per cent. Perth and Adelaide are the only cities to experience growth for this expanded period, while in the regions, SA and WA are the only states to have rising average values over the last 12 months.
According to CoreLogic’s latest Monthly Housing Chart, the June rate hike may have knocked some momentum out of the housing market recovery, as well as a recent lift in new listings. The report also pointed out that prices have well and truly dropped below the peaks achieved before interest rates started rising last year.
In Sydney, for example, prices are now 7.2 per cent below record highs achieved in January 2022. However, they are still above where they were prior to the pandemic, and this is the case for most capital cities.
Sales and listings
Given how high interest rates are at the moment, property prices are holding relatively strong. This can be attributed to a combination of fewer new dwellings being constructed and continued interest from overseas.
CoreLogic shares that sales volumes are stabilising, despite being down from recent highs in 2021. Around 39,000 homes were sold in July, down from a historic average of around 40,000.
Meanwhile:
• The amount of time it takes to sell property has trended higher, but only slightly, shifting to 34 days from an average of 30 days in April.
• Average vendor discounts are sitting at 3.9 per cent for the quarter, which is actually an improvement from the previous six-monthly figures (discounts were -4.4% at the end of last year).
• In terms of listings, the number of properties for sale remains lower than everywhere except Sydney and Melbourne, where there are more homes on the market than this time last year.
What does this mean for the property market?
Property-related numbers could be described as relatively steady at the moment. As Core Logic research director Tim Lawless explained, further increases in listings could take some heat out of the market, unless there is a lift in buyer interest. He added that “home owners could be picking current market conditions as a good time to sell rather than waiting until later.”
