Monthly Housing Chart Pack Summary – September 24
CoreLogic estimates the combined value of residential real estate rose to $10.95 trillion at the end of August.
The pace of quarterly growth continued to ease, over the three months to August, with values up 1.3%. This is down from the 2.0% rise recorded in April and the 3.3% increase seen over the June 2023 quarter.
For the sixth month in a row, the annual growth rate decelerated, with values up 7.1% over the year to August. Despite the slowdown, the annual rise in values is equivalent to a $53,000 lift in the median value.
Growth continues to favour the affordable end of the market, with the cheapest 25% of the market up 2.3% over the quarter compared to the 0.5% rise in the more expensive upper quartile.
Perth once again led the capitals in capital growth, with values up 5.7% in the three months to August and up 24.4% over the past year.
CoreLogic estimates there were 40,428 sales in August, taking the national annual count to 513,067. This is 9.3% above sales volumes seen last year and 5.1% above the previous five-year average. Looking at sales over the three months to August, sales activity is still above the same time last year (0.9%) but is -0.4% below the average for this time of year.
At the national level, properties are taking longer to sell, with the median time on the market rising from a recent low of 27 days over the three months to April to 34 days over the three months to August. Perth (11 days) continues to record the shortest selling times, although the median has risen slightly from the nine days it took to sell a property over the three months to July.
Vendor discounting remained relatively steady, with the median vendor discounting rate coming in at 3.7% over the three months to August. Sellers in Darwin (-4.6%) continue to offer the largest discounts across the capitals, followed by Hobart (-4.1%), while stronger selling conditions in Perth has seen the median vendor discount fall to -2.6%.
New listings levels continued to hold above average, with 39,994 new listings observed nationally over the four weeks to September 1st. Winter historically has been a seasonally slow period for listings. However, listing activity over the final month of winter was 4% above this time last year and 16.7% above the previous five-year average.
At the national level, CoreLogic observed 140,107 for-sale listings over the four weeks to September 1st. While overall listing levels have remained fairly subdued, the unseasonably high flow of new listings has seen stock levels accumulate, with the total listing count rising from around -25% below average at the start of 2024 to -12.4% below average.
Capital city auction activity has trended higher over August, from the 1,778 auctions recorded over the week ending 4th of August to the 2,315 auctions held the week ending September 1st. Despite the additional supply, clearance rates have held relatively steady, with the combined capital’s clearance rate averaging 64.3% over the past four weeks.
The pace of annual rental growth continued to ease in August, with national rental values up 7.2%, down from the 8.6% rise seen over the 12 months to March. Across individual capitals, annual rental growth has generally eased, with the exception of Hobart and Canberra, both of which saw rents decline in 2023.
National gross rent yields remained steady for the 21st consecutive month at 3.7% in August. Yields have now converged in Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide at 3.7%, with yields expanding in Melbourne and falling in Brisbane and Adelaide.
Dwelling approvals were up 10.4% in July, the highest monthly uplift since May 2023. This was largely driven by the more volatile unit sector (+33.7%), but the house segment also saw a modest uplift of 0.3%. The less volatile house approval figures have now seen six consecutive months of increase.
The September ‘Chart of the Month’ looks at quarterly value declines at the more granular suburb level, with almost 30% of the 3,655 suburbs analysed recording a quarterly drop in dwelling values. Victoria made up the majority of value falls, with 79.1% of Melbourne suburbs and 73.8% of regional Victorian suburbs down over the quarter. Values also decreased across more than half of the suburbs in Hobart (54.3%), Darwin (51.2%), and Canberra (51.6%), while all suburbs in Perth saw values rise over the quarter.
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Source: CoreLogic