Price rises in Sydney and Melbourne drove a 3.9 per cent rise in residential property prices in the December quarter 2019, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Residential property prices rose 4.7 per cent in Sydney and 5.2 per cent in Melbourne, with both cities recording a second consecutive quarter of strong growth. Prices rose in all capital cities except Darwin.
House prices rose 5.2 per cent in Sydney and 5.5 per cent in Melbourne, while attached dwelling prices rose 3.8 per cent in Sydney and 4.3 per cent in Melbourne.
ABS Chief Economist Bruce Hockman said, "While Australia's two largest cities continued to lead the rise in property prices, the turnaround in the housing market has spread to all other cities except Darwin".
Residential property prices rose 2.5 per cent in the year to the December quarter 2019, with rises in all capital cities except Perth and Darwin.
"Results are consistent with other housing market indicators, including new lending commitments to households and sales transactions, which have been rising over several months", said Mr Hockman.
The total value of Australia’s 10.4 million residential dwellings rose by $294.4 billion to $7,212.6 billion in the December quarter 2019, the largest rise since the commencement of the series in the September quarter 2011. The mean price of residential dwellings in Australia is now $691,000.
Further details can be found in Residential Property Price Indexes: Eight Capital Cities (cat. no. 6416.0), available for free download from the ABS website: http://www.abs.gov.au.