Residential Property Price Indexes: Eight Capital Cities

Weighted average of the eight capital cities

• rose 3.0% this quarter.
• rose 3.6% over the last twelve months.

Capital city Residential Property Price Indexes

• rose in Sydney (+3.0%), Melbourne (+3.4%), Brisbane (+2.7%), Perth (+2.9%), Adelaide (+2.6%), Canberra (+3.4%), Hobart (+3.1%), and Darwin (+2.2%), this quarter. 
• rose in Hobart (+6.4%), Canberra (+5.2%), Perth (+4.2%), Brisbane (+4.0%), Adelaide (+3.8%), Sydney (+3.7%), Melbourne (+2.9%), and Darwin (+2.3%), over the last twelve months. 

• the total value of residential dwellings in Australia rose $257.9b to $7,724.4b this quarter.
• the mean price of residential dwellings rose $21,300 to $728,500. 
• the number of residential dwellings rose by 44,100 to 10,602,700.

Revisions apply to estimates for the second and third most recent quarters of the total value of dwelling stock (see Revisions, under Total value of dwelling stock, in the Explanatory notes) and to median prices and transfers (see Revisions, under Dwelling transfer counts and median prices, in the Methodology page).

Price indexes published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) provide summary measures of the movements in various categories of prices over time. They are published primarily for use in Government economic analysis. Price indexes are also often used in contracts by businesses and government to adjust payments and/or charges to take account of changes in categories of prices (Indexation Clauses).

Use of Price Indexes in Contracts sets out a range of issues that should be taken into account by parties considering including an Indexation Clause in a contract using an ABS published price index.

The discussion of individual cities is ordered in terms of their significance to the change in the Residential Property Price Index for the latest quarter. The Residential Property Price Index comprises the House Price Index and the Attached Dwellings Price Index.

• The preliminary estimate of the total value of residential dwellings in Australia this quarter was $7,724.4 billion, up from $7,466.5 billion in the September quarter 2020. This is the strongest rise since the December quarter 2016. Of the total value of residential dwellings, $7,375.7 billion was owned by households.
• The number of residential dwellings rose by 44,100 to 10,602,700, and the mean price of residential dwellings rose $21,300 to $728,500 this quarter. 

• The mean price of residential dwellings in New South Wales ($939,700) remains the highest in the country, followed by Victoria ($785,000) and then the Australian Capital Territory ($757,000). The lowest mean price is in the Northern Territory ($429,400).

The ABS publishes the median price and the number of residential property transfers for each capital city and the rest of state in Tables 4 and 5 of this publication each quarter. The number of property transfers provides an indication of the level of sales activity for each quarter.  

Table 1 presents the residential property transfer counts for the calendar years 2015 to 2020, and Table 2 presents the year-on-year movements in percentage terms. The transfer counts relate to the capital city and rest of state region of each state and territory. [1]

During 2020, the number of residential property transfers increased 7.2% nationally. Transfer counts increased 2.1% for the combined capital cities and 16.4% for the regions outside the capital cities.

Residential property transfer counts increased in all capital cities apart from Melbourne and Hobart during 2020. The strongest increases were observed in Perth (+20.5%), Canberra (+12.9%), Sydney (+12.2%), and Brisbane (+10.7%). 

The results for Perth, Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane reflect strong demand for residential property driven by record low interest rates and supported by a range of government incentives. The increase in sales activity for these cities is consistent with continued improvement in a range of housing market indicators in the second half of 2020. These include new lending commitments to households, auction clearance rates, and days on market.

The fall in transfer counts in Melbourne reflects the effects of COVID-19 restrictions and extended lockdowns on the Melbourne property market, especially in the September quarter. Property transfers in Hobart fell sharply in the June quarter 2020 and are yet to fully recover.

For the rest of state regions, residential property transfer counts increased in all regional areas apart from Tasmania during 2020. The strongest increases were observed in WA (+33.3%), NSW (+21.8%), SA (+21.8%), and Qld (+18.4%). The results indicate that residential property sales activity has been strong across most regional areas during 2020.

Graph 1 shows transfer counts at the Australian total level for calendar years 2015 to 2020, and the contribution of capital city and rest of state regions.

Technical note

Residential property transfer numbers for recent periods are subject to revision. As the ABS receives more unit record residential property sales data for each quarter, the numbers of dwelling transfers are revised upwards as necessary. These revisions can be substantial, especially in the quarter immediately following first release. Revisions can be made to the most recent ten quarters of published figures.

Over the last six calendar years (2015-2020), the average revision to transfer counts after twelve months has been around 6% for the combined capital cities and around 4% for the total rest of state region.

The data for 2018, 2019 and 2020 as presented in Table 1 are preliminary and subject to revision. Despite this, and considering the positive nature of revisions to property transfer numbers in subsequent quarters, results to date indicate that residential property sales activity increased in most capital cities during 2020.

[1] Capital cities are defined as Greater Capital City Statistical Areas, as described in the Australian Statistical Geography Standard, Vol 1. These areas capture the socio-economic extent of the state/territory capital cities for statistical purposes. 

This release previously used catalogue number 6416.0