Photo by Deeva Sood on Unsplash
When Melbourne and Sydney cough, the nation catches a cold, as data released today reveals property prices declined 1.8% in the June quarter.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Sydney's property prices declined 2.2% over the quarter, while Melbourne's declined 2.3%.
This makes the mean price of residential dwellings $678,500, down from $690,200 in the March quarter.
ABS' Head of Prices Statistics Andrew Tomadini put the declines down to COVID-19.
"The number of residential property transactions fell substantially in the eight capital cities during the June quarter 2020, due to the effects of COVID-19 on the property market", said Mr Tomadini.
"All capital cities apart from Canberra recorded falls in property prices in the June quarter 2020."
Brisbane's declined -0.9%; Adelaide -0.8%; Perth -0.7%; Hobart -0.4%; Darwin -1.4%; Canberra +0.8%.
However, nationwide, residential property prices are still up 6.2% on the year to the June quarter 2020, with rises in all capital cities except Perth and Darwin.
Buying a home or looking to refinance? The table below features home loans with some of the lowest variable interest rates on the market for owner occupiers.

Smart Booster Home Loan
Product Features
- Discount variable for 1 year <=80% LVR
- No ongoing fees
- Unlimited redraw facility
Monthly repayments: $1,476
Advertised
Rate (p.a.)
1.99%
Comparison
Rate (p.a.)
2.47%
Product Features
- Discount variable for 1 year
- No ongoing fees
- Unlimited redraw facility
Base criteria of: a $400,000 loan amount, variable, principal and interest (P&I) home loans with an LVR (loan-to-value) ratio of at least 80%. If products listed have an LVR <80%, they will be clearly identified in the product name along with the specific LVR. The product and rate must be clearly published on the Product Provider’s web site. Monthly repayments were calculated based on the selected products’ advertised rates, applied to a $400,000 loan with a 30-year loan term.
With an average residential dwelling value of $498,500, Western Australia's mean dipped below the $500,000 mark for the first time since ABS began tallying this data in December 2011.
In the Northern Territory, average values were at $410,100, the lowest price recorded in the series' nine-year history.
Disclaimers
The entire market was not considered in selecting the above products. Rather, a cut-down portion of the market has been considered which includes retail products from at least the big four banks, the top 10 customer-owned institutions and Australia’s larger non-banks:
- The big four banks are: ANZ, CBA, NAB and Westpac
- The top 10 customer-owned Institutions are the ten largest mutual banks, credit unions and building societies in Australia, ranked by assets under management in November 2020. They are (in descending order): Credit Union Australia, Newcastle Permanent, Heritage Bank, Peoples’ Choice Credit Union, Teachers Mutual Bank, Greater Bank, IMB Bank, Beyond Bank, Bank Australia and P&N Bank.
- The larger non-bank lenders are those who (in 2020) has more than $9 billion in Australian funded loans and advances. These groups are: Resimac, Pepper, Liberty and Firstmac.
Some providers' products may not be available in all states. To be considered, the product and rate must be clearly published on the product provider's web site.
In the interests of full disclosure, Savings.com.au, Performance Drive and Loans.com.au are part of the Firstmac Group. To read about how Savings.com.au manages potential conflicts of interest, along with how we get paid, please click through onto the web site links.
*Comparison rate is based on a loan of $150,000 over a term of 25 years. Please note the comparison rate only applies to the examples given. Different loan amounts and terms will result in different comparison rates. Costs such as redraw fees and costs savings, such as fee waivers, are not included in the comparison rate but may influence the cost of the loan.
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