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

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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.

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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 2019. 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 2019) 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 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.

*The Comparison rate is based on a $150,000 loan over 25 years. Warning: this comparison rate is true only for this example and may not include all fees and charges. Different terms, fees or other loan amounts might result in a different comparison rate.

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