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

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

Well... this monthly collection of charts from Cotality (formerly CoreLogic) paints an interesting picture.

After moving through the most diverse conditions since 2007, growth rates across Australia’s capital cities have tightened to the narrowest range in over 4 years, according to Cotality's latest data.

The data highlights how annual dwelling value growth is converging across the capital cities amid changing market conditions.

In May, the difference between the highest and lowest annual growth rates was just 9.8 percentage points, the narrowest gap since March 2021.

It was only August last year, the gap between the highest and lowest performing capitals was at its widest since 2007(during the height of the mining boom and just prior to the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), with a range of 26.1 percentage points.

Cotality Research Director Tim Lawless noted this convergence has occurred rapidly and signals a changing dynamic in Australia’s housing market.

He further said:

“The convergence of growth rates is attributable to the pace of capital gains slowing across the mid-sized capitals while previously soft markets like Melbourne, ACT and Hobart move back into a positive growth position.

Growth across Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane have slowed amid worsening affordability constraints, reduced interstate migration, and a drop in investment demand.

Although despite the slowdown, Perth and Adelaide continue to post the strongest annual gains at 8.6%, though well below their cyclical peaks of over 25%."

Conversely, Mr Lawless said softer markets are showing signs of recovery, supported by falling interest rates and housing becoming more affordable as prices have reduced:

“For Sydney, home values have bounced back from a 12.4% decline in early 2023 to positive growth by July 2023, peaking at 12.3% annual growth in January 2024, but since then, growth has slowed to its lowest rate (1.1%) since June 2023.

Melbourne’s annual rate of decline has eased from -7.8% in January 2023 to -1.2% over the past year, with values steadily increasing since February.

Hobart’s rate of decline has turned positive, with values up 1.0% over the past 12 months following a peak rate of annual decline of -11.8% in March 2023.

For now, capital city housing markets are moving more in step than they have in years."

• The total value of Australian residential real estate was $11.4 trillion at the end of May 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.

Australian dwelling values

• The rolling quarterly trend for national dwelling values came in at 1.3% over the three months to May, in line with the revised 1.3% rise seen over the three months to April.
• Despite the steady quarterly trend, rolling annual value growth has continued to ease, with values up 3.3% in the year to May, the lowest annual increase since the 12 months to August 2023 (2.6%).
• National housing values have risen 42.8% over the past five years, adding an equivalent of approximately $250,000 to the national median dwelling value.
• Results vary across regions, from the 85.8% rise in regional WA values to a 12.8% lift across Melbourne.
• 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 8.6% over the year and are currently at a new record high.
• On the other hand, although Melbourne property values, are up 0.4% over the last month, they still fell -1.2% over the last year,  and are now -4.5% below the record high, which was in March 2022.

• And in the previous darling of the housing markets, Hobart, house prices are -10.5 % below their record highs recorded in March 2022.

Another star performer was Brisbane where property values increased 7.1% over the last year and are currently at a record high.

Sydney property values underperformed over the past year (+1.1%) and are now -0.3% 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 newly advertised stock rebounded in May, with 35,069 properties listed for sale nationally over the four weeks to June 1st.
• While down -7.0% compared to this time last year and -1.9% below the previous five-year average, the four-week count on new listings is up 11.1% from the recent low recorded over the 28 days to April 27th, when consecutive long weekends along with tariff uncertainty impacted listing activity.
• The problem is that very few are A Grade homes or investment grade properties. Owners of quality properties are holding onto them.
• Despite the uptick in new listings, total listing levels have continued to ease, with 133,725 listings observed nationally over the four weeks to June 1st reading is the lowest national count for this time of year since 2007, when approximately 115,000 properties were advertised for sale.

Transaction volumes

• Cotality estimates 43,903 sales occurred nationally in May, taking the rolling 12-month count to 526,530.
• While monthly activity came in -1.1% below the five-year average, annual sales activity has been more resilient.
• Over the 12 months to May, sales estimates are up 2.3% from the year prior and 2.7% above the previous 5-year average.

It's taking longer to sell a home

• The national median time on market rose to 34 days over the three months to May after briefly dipping to 30 days over the three months to April.
• Compared to this time last year, properties are taking longer to sell across all capitals except Darwin (41 days) and Canberra (49 days), with the median days on market decreasing by 12 and two days, respectively.

Vendor Discounting

• Nationally, sellers are offering smaller discounts in order to secure a sale, with the median vendor discounting rate coming in at 3.4% over the three months to May, down from the recent high of 3.7% recorded in the three months to January.
• This reduction was largely driven by the combined capitals, with the median discount down 30 basis points to 3.2%, while vendors across the combined regions (3.7%) have seen a more modest decline of 10 basis points over the same period.

Auction clearance rates showed renewed exuberance over the month

• Auction clearance rates showed renewed exuberance over the month, with the combined capitals' clearance rate
  averaging 65.3% over the four weeks ending June 1st, up from 60.4% over the four weeks ending May 4th.
• Brisbane saw the strongest turnaround in auction success rates, with the 59.1% average recorded at the end of June, up 9.3 percentage points from the previous four-week average, while the larger auction capitals of Melbourne (67.5%) and Sydney (64.3%) saw milder increases of 5.4 and 3.2 percentage points, respectively.
• We update the weekly auction clearance results here each week.

We're still experiencing a rental market crisis in Australia

• Rental growth continued to moderate in May, with national dwelling rents up 0.4% over the month, taking the 12-month trend to 3.4%, less than half the 8.1% annual rise recorded this time last year.
• Melbourne (1.5%) and Sydney (1.8%) saw some of the sharpest slowdowns in annual rental growth compared to last year, with both markets now recording yearly increases below their pre-COVID decade average.

• National gross rent yields remained steady at 3.7% in May, with rental yields across the combined capitals and combined regionals are also holding firm at 3.5% and 4.4%, respectively.
• A similar trend was seen across the capitals and the rest of the state regions, with yields across most markets in line with their respective April result.
• The exceptions were Regional NSW (4.1%), Regional NT (7.7%), where yields fell 10 basis points, and Regional Tasmania (4.6%), with yields up 10 basis points over the month.

Dwelling approvals and housing credit

• Dwelling approvals plunged -5.7% in April, due to a substantial -18.9% dip in the volatile unit segment, offsetting the 3.3% increase in house approvals.
• Across the states and territories, SA (4.6%), WA (20.3%), Tasmania (5.4%) and NT (1.8%) all saw a monthly uptick in approvals.
• However, WA and SA were the only states to record approval levels above the decade average, up 23.2% and 33.7%, respectively.

Finance and Lending

• The volume and value of new home loan commitments fell in the March quarter, down -3.5% and -1.6%, respectively.
• Both owner-occupiers (-3.4%) and investors (-3.4%) drove the decline in quarterly loan volumes, while a more
  substantial fall in the value of loan commitments was seen in owner-occupiers lending (-2.5%), compared with
  investors (-0.3%).

• The value of first home buyer financing fell -3.4% over the March quarter, driven by declines in SA (-6.1%), QLD (-2.1%) and WA (-0.9%).
• As a portion of new owner-occupier lending, first home buyers lending trended lower, comprising 29.0% in Q1, the lowest portion since the three months to December 2022 (27.6%).
• Despite this, most states are still seeing first-home buyers as a portion of owner-occupier lending above historic decade averages.

Source of charts: CoreLogic Chart Pack, June 2025.

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