Everything you need to know about the state of Australia’s property markets in 20 charts – April 2025

Want to know what's happening to the housing markets around Australia?

Well... this monthly collection of charts from CoreLogic paints an interesting picture.

Australia’s housing market has seen national home values surge 39.1% over the past five years, adding approximately $230,000 to the median dwelling value, according to CoreLogic.

While significant, looking at historical data reveals that the latest five-year growth figure remains well below the historic peaks recorded in the early 2000s and late 1980s.

Kaytlin Ezzy, Economist for CoreLogic, said the 39.1% growth in values seen over the past five years reflects strong underlying housing demand, tight supply and a relatively resilient economy.

She further said:

“Outside of a few short months of declines, values have seen strong upward pressure over the past five years, driven by low stock levels and increased demand.

But this growth cycle remains moderate compared to earlier periods, when financial deregulation, strong economic growth and favourable demographic shifts helped fuel remarkable value growth.”

• The total value of Australian residential real estate was $11.3 trillion at the end of March 2025
• Outstanding mortgages against all residential housing are only $2.4 trillion - a very comfortable 21% Loan to Value ratio.
• 55.3% of total Aussie household wealth is held in residential property - one of the many reasons neither the banks, the government nor the RBA wants a property crash.

National dwelling values ended Q1 in positive territory

• After falling for three consecutive months, the rolling quarterly trend for national dwelling values ended Q1 in positive territory, with values up 0.7%.
• Despite the uptick in the quarterly result, the annual trend continued to lose momentum, with values up just 3.4% over the year to March.
• With house values up 0.5% and unit values up 0.3% over the month, the premium for houses increased to 31.5% in March, expanding from a recent low of 25.8% in January 2023.
• However, our property markets are fragmented meaning while many segments are growing, some are languishing.
• And, of course, as a property investor you can always outperform the average.

Our capital city markets are fragmented

Our housing markets are fragmented with each state performing differently depending on local economic and market factors.

At the beginning of this property cycle the upper quartile of the market lead the upswing in 2023, but more recently the lower quartile across every capital city has recorded a stronger outcome for housing values relative to its upper quartile counterpart.

The following chart shows how various segments of each capital city market are performing differently with median-priced properties performing well.

Each State is running its own race

• On the one hand, Perth property values are up 11.9% over the year and are roughly inline (-0.05%) with the record high in October 2024.
• On the other hand, although Melbourne property values, are up 0.5% over the last month, they still fell -2.6% over the last year,  and are now -5.6% below the record high, which was in March 2022.

• And in the previous darling of the housing markets, Hobart, house prices are -12 % below their record highs recorded in March 2022.

Another star performer was Brisbane where property values increased 8.6% over the last year and are currently at a record high.

Sydney property values underperformed over the past year (+0.9%) and are now -1.4% below the record high which was September 2024.

Here's how the Adelaide property market performed.

The Canberra housing market languished last year

Similarly, the Darwin housing market underperformed in the last year.

Here's how many properties are for sale at the moment

• The flow of freshly advertised properties has continued to hold -4.1% below the levels typically seen this time of year, with just shy of 40,000 new listings seen over the four weeks to March 30th.
• The trend in new listings is expected to peak the week prior to Easter, before easing over the colder winter months.
• The problem is that very few are A Grade homes or investment grade properties. Owners of quality properties are holding onto them.
• Over the four weeks to March 30th, national total listing levels held relatively steady at 141,620, -11.0% below the previous five-year average.
• With the flow of new listings about to move through a seasonally quiet period, the current shortfall in advertised stock will likely continue to place upward pressure on values.

Transaction volumes

• While monthly sales activity has continued to ramp up from seasonal lows, with CoreLogic estimating 42,552 sales nationally in March, the rolling annual sales count has fallen -2.1% since the recent peak of 539,743 in December last year
• Despite the slowdown, the 12 monthly sales estimates for March, at 528,212, remain 4.6% higher than this time last year and 4.1% above the previous five-year average.

It's taking longer to sell a home

• Properties are staying on the market longer, with the national median time to sell increasing from 30 days a year ago to 40 days in Q1 2025.
• The combined regional markets saw the largest rise in selling times, reaching a median of 50 days—the highest since Q3 2020.
• Similarly, in capital cities, the median time on market climbed to 35 days over the quarter, marking its highest level since September 2020.

Vendor Discounting

• After expanding through the second half of 2024 and into 2025, median vendor discounting rates tightened slightly over the three months to March to -3.5%.
• Compared to the three months to February, Sydney and Darwin saw the largest pullback in discounting, from -3.5% to -3.2% and -4.2% to -3.9%, respectively.
• Discounting in Adelaide, ACT and Melbourne shrunk by 20 basis points, while median discounts in Brisbane, Hobart and Perth were just 10 basis points lower.

Capital city clearance rates have trended lower

• After showing some exuberance following the February rate cut, capital city clearance rates have trended lower over the month, with the combined capitals rate falling below the 60% mark in the week ending March 30th(59.4%).
• Over the four weeks to March 30th, Adelaide had the highest average success rate at 64.5%, followed by Sydney (62.9%) and Melbourne (62.3%).
• In Perth, 56.4% of auctions were successful, while the average clearance rate in Canberra and Brisbane came in at 54.9% and 53.3%, respectively.
• We update the weekly auction clearance results here each week.

We're still experiencing a rental market crisis in Australia

• Despite a seasonal uptick in the quarterly measure (1.7%), the rolling 12-month change in national rental values has
  continued to lose momentum, with rents up 3.8% over the year to March.
• The lowest annual change in rents in four years, this month's reading is just 1.8 percentage points above the pre-COVID decade average of 2.0%.

• Gross rental yields across the combined capitals have risen subtly over the past six months, from 3.4% in September 2024 to 3.5% in March.
• Perth (4.3%) saw the largest six month increase, rising 19 basis points, followed by Canberra (up 15 basis points to 4.1%) and Hobart (up 14 basis points to 4.4%).
• Darwin was the only capital to see a decline, with yields falling 23 basis points from 6.8% in September last year to 6.6% in March.

Dwelling approvals and housing credit

• Dwelling approvals remained just -1.8% below the previous 10-year average, with 16,606 approvals seen in February.
• Despite feasibility concerns, the unit segment has continued to outperform, with the monthly count holding above the decade average (+2.7%) for the second consecutive month.
• In contrast, approvals in the detached segment were somewhat soft, coming in -5.0% below the 10-year average.

Finance and Lending

• The total value of new home loan commitments rose 1.4% in the December quarter to $87.2 billion.
• The increase was led by owner-occupiers, with first-home buyer commitments up 1.5% and subsequent owner-occupier loans up 3.5% over the quarter.
• Meanwhile, the quarterly value of investor lending fell -2.9% over Q4 but remained 22.2% above the levels seen this time last year.

• The value of first home buyer finance rose 1.5% over the December quarter of 2024 to $16 billion.
• As a portion of new owner occupier lending, first home buyers comprised 29.2% in Q4, down from a recent peak of 31.3% in Q2 2024 but above the historic decade average of 26.8%.

Source of charts: CoreLogic Chart Pack, April 2025.

• Also read:Everything you need to know about the state of Australia’s property markets in 20 charts – April 2025
• Also read:Sydney property market forecast for 2025. Is it a good time to invest in Sydney?
• Also read:Brisbane Property Market Forecast [2025] – What’s Ahead & Where to Invest
• Also read:Melbourne property market forecast for 2025 | Is it a good time to invest in Melbourne?
• Also read:Latest property price forecasts for 2025 revealed. What’s ahead in our housing markets in the next year or two?