Australian housing values reach a new record high as values continue to rise across every broad region of the country

"Housing values continued to rise through the first month of 2021 with CoreLogic’s national home value index up 0.9% over the month. The January movement takes Australian home values to a fresh record high. Housing values have surpassed pre-COVID levels by 1.0%, and the index is 0.7% higher than the previous October 2017 peak. Every capital city and broad rest-of-state region recorded a rise in housing values over the month, ranging from a 2.3% surge across Darwin to a relatively mild 0.4% rise in Sydney and Melbourne.

Continuing a trend that became evident early in the pandemic, regional housing values rose at more than twice the pace of the capital city markets. CoreLogic’s combined regionals index was up 1.6% over the month, while capital city values were 0.7% higher. Since the onset of COVID-19 in March last year, regional housing values have surged 6.5% higher while capital city housing values are down -0.2% over the same time frame.

The largest states are seeing regional home values rising at more than three times the pace of their capital city counterparts. Home values across Regional Victoria and Regional New South Wales rose 1.6% and 1.5% respectively in January compared with a 0.4% increase in home values across Melbourne and Sydney.

 “Better housing affordability, an opportunity for a lifestyle upgrade and lower density housing options are other factors that might be contributing to this trend, along with the new found popularity of remote working arrangements.” "

Source: CoreLogic