Residential Property Price Indexes: Eight Capital Cities

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Provides estimates of changes in residential property prices in each of the eight capital cities of Australia and related statistics

Reference period
December 2019
Released
17/03/2020

Key statistics

Weighted average of the eight capital cities Residential Property Price Index:

  • rose 3.9% this quarter;
  • rose 2.5% over the last twelve months.

The total value of residential dwellings in Australia rose to $7,212.6b this quarter.

Main features

December key statistics

 Sep Qtr 19 to Dec Qtr 19Dec Qtr 18 to Dec Qtr 19
Residential property prices% change% change
Weighted average of eight capital cities3.92.5
Sydney4.73.7
Melbourne5.24.1
Brisbane1.80.3
Adelaide1.40.3
Perth1.1-2.5
Hobart2.74.1
Darwin-0.8-5.5
Canberra3.11.9

 

 

Total value of the dwelling stockDec Qtr 19
Value of dwelling stock(a) ($b)7,212.6
Mean price of residential dwellings ($'000)691.0
Number of residential dwellings ('000)10,437.9
  1. all sectors

December key points

The Residential Property Price Indexes

Weighted average of the eight capital cities Residential Property Price Index

  • rose 3.9% this quarter.
  • rose 2.5% over the last twelve months.
     

Capital city Residential Property Price Indexes

  • rose in Sydney (+4.7%), Melbourne (+5.2%), Brisbane (+1.8%), Perth (+1.1%), Adelaide (+1.4%), Canberra (+3.1%) and Hobart (+2.7%), and fell in Darwin (-0.8%), this quarter.
  • rose in Melbourne (+4.1%), Hobart (+4.1%), Sydney (+3.7%), Canberra (+1.9%), Brisbane (+0.3%) and Adelaide (+0.3%), and fell in Darwin (-5.5%) and Perth (-2.5%), over the last twelve months.
     

​​​​​​​Total value of the dwelling stock

  • The total value of residential dwellings in Australia rose $294.4b to $7,212.6b this quarter.
  • The mean price of residential dwellings rose $25,400 to $691,000.
  • The number of residential dwellings rose by 43,400 to 10,437,900.
     

​​​​​​​Notes

Revisions

Revisions apply to estimates for the second and third most recent quarters of the total value of dwelling stock (see Preliminary and final series, under Total value of dwelling stock, in the Methodology page) and to median prices and transfers (see Price indexes, unstratified medians and transfers, under Interpreting outputs, in the Methodology page).

Use of price indexes in contracts

Price indexes published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) provide summary measures of the movements in various categories of prices over time. They are published primarily for use in Government economic analysis. Price indexes are also often used in contracts by businesses and government to adjust payments and/or charges to take account of changes in categories of prices (Indexation Clauses).

Use of Price Indexes in Contracts sets out a range of issues that should be taken into account by parties considering including an Indexation Clause in a contract using an ABS published price index.

​​​​​​​Bushfires in December

Quality assurance undertaken by the ABS has confirmed that the bushfires did not result in quality impacts to residential property price statistics for the December quarter 2019. For information on the expected economic impacts of the bushfires and COVID-19, please see the ABS Chief Economist Series paper Measuring natural disasters in the Australian economy.

Analysis

Residential property price indexes

 RPPI (a)HPIADPI
 Sep Qtr 19 to Dec Qtr 19Sep Qtr 19 to Dec Qtr 19Sep Qtr 19 to Dec Qtr 19
 % change% change% change
Weighted average of eight capital cities3.94.23.4
Sydney4.75.23.8
Melbourne5.25.54.3
Brisbane1.82.00.8
Adelaide1.41.60.6
Perth1.11.4-0.1
Hobart2.72.63.5
Darwin-0.8-0.8-0.6
Canberra3.13.32.7

a. See the methodology page for more information on rounding.
 

Capital city indexes

The discussion of individual cities is ordered in terms of their significance to the change in the Residential Property Price Index (RPPI) for the latest quarter. The RPPI comprises the House Price Index (HPI) and the Attached Dwellings Price Index (ADPI).

Weighted average of the eight capital cities (+3.9%)

​​​​​​​Sydney (+4.7%)

​​​​​​​Melbourne (+5.2%)

​​​​​​​Brisbane (+1.8%)

​​​​​​​Perth (+1.1%)

​​​​​​​Adelaide (+1.4%)

​​​​​​​Canberra (+3.1%)

Hobart (+2.7%)

​​​​​​​Darwin (-0.8%)

  • The preliminary estimate of the total value of residential dwellings in Australia this quarter was $7,212.6 billion, up from $6,918.1 billion in the September quarter 2019. This is the largest rise since the commencement of the series, in the September quarter 2011. Of the total value of residential dwellings, $6,883.5 billion was owned by households.
  • The number of residential dwellings rose by 43,400 to 10,437,900 and the mean price of residential dwellings rose $25,400 to $691,000 this quarter.
     
  • The mean price of residential dwellings in New South Wales ($899,300) remains the highest in the country, followed by Victoria ($747,500) and then the Australian Capital Territory ($693,500). The lowest mean price is in Tasmania ($434,500).
     

Data downloads

Table 1. Residential property price index, index numbers and percentage changes

Table 2. Established house price index, index numbers and percentage changes

Table 3. Attached dwellings price index, index numbers and percentage changes

Tables 4 and 5. Median price (unstratified) and number of transfers (capital city and rest of state)

Table 6. Value of residential dwellings, all series

Table 7. All index numbers

Table 8. Established house price index, index numbers, pre-September quarter 2005 methodology

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