Sydney and Melbourne drive 1.6% national house price increase for March quarter

Photo by Nicolas Gonzalez on Unsplash

Residential property prices rose by 1.6% in the March quarter, driven by gains in the Sydney and Melbourne markets.

House prices lifted by 1.6% in the March quarter 2020 (January-March), coming in below expectations of a 2.5% rise. 

All capital cities recorded a rise in residential property prices with Australia's two largest cities, Sydney (+1.9%) and Melbourne (+2.1%), continuing to lead the rises, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

House prices rose 2.6% in Sydney and 2.3% in Melbourne, while attached dwelling prices (apartments and townhouses) rose 1.5% in Melbourne and 0.8% in Sydney.

ABS Chief Economist Bruce Hockman said estimates were in line with expectations.

"The majority of restrictions relating to COVID-19 came into effect in late March and therefore did not have a noticeable impact on property prices in the March quarter 2020," he said.

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.

Through the year to the March quarter 2020, residential property prices rose 7.4%, with rises in all capital cities except Perth and Darwin.

The results were lower than what had been expected. NAB had predicted house prices would rise 2.5% and be up +8.1% on a year ago.

AMP Capital chief economist Dr Shane Oliver had forecast house prices for the March quarter would show a rise of 2-3%, but noted the data was a bit dated. 

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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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