Housing values up $3,000 in January
House prices in Australia’s capital cities are predicted to increase by 6% this year, with the country’s property market maintaining a growth trajectory despite a slight December decline.
Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that while the value of investor and owner-occupier loans fell in the month of December, a 20.4% and 7.4% growth was recorded for investor loans and owner-occupier loans, respectively, throughout 2023.
“We do expect housing prices to continue to rise by about 6% in capital cities through 2024 – more in places like Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth,” Adelaide Timbrell (pictured), senior economist at ANZ, was quoted as saying in an ABC News report.
A supply shortage also looms, further pushing property prices upwards.
“We’ve got really low rental vacancy rates, we’ve got really weak building approvals through 2023, and what that means is that there's lots of people who need homes and not a lot of homes that are going to be for sale or for rent,” Timbrell said. “What that does is it pushes up prices both for renters and prospective buyers.”
According to Tim Lawless, head of research at CoreLogic, while the 0.4% increase in property prices in January may not seem a lot, it means housing values have gone up about $3,000 in just a month.
“Housing prices have risen way more than household incomes over the past 15 years,” Timbrell said. “Average loan sizes are big, the average deposit you need is really big as well, and the average amount you can save has gotten smaller over 2023.
“So, there’s a lot of challenges that make it really hard to crack into the market and that’s why, compared to 10 to 20 years ago, there are fewer people under 35 who own a home.”
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