House prices hit new record high

This resulted from unit prices accelerating substantially after the city’s fastest quarterly gain in 3½ years (at 8.1 per cent).

The growth in unit prices has outperformed houses annually and quarterly – breaking a trend seen across the last 11 successive quarters and narrowing the price gap to 83 per cent, down from the previous quarter’s record 95 per cent.

Nationally, Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane led quarterly gains in house prices, while Perth, Darwin and Brisbane led for units.

The median house price across the combined capitals is $1.11 million, led by Sydney which had a median value of $1.62 million.

Powell said all capital cities were seeing the pace of house price growth decelerate compared to the previous quarter, apart from Canberra which had moved into positive growth following a decline.

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“Records continue to tumble despite the slower growth, with house prices in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth at another record high; for units, it’s Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth,” she said.

“In fact, a number of milestones were hit during the first quarter of 2024. For the first time, Sydney house prices surpassed $1.6 million and Adelaide rose to over $900,000.”

CoreLogic data released on Tuesday showed there were 3500 new listings in Perth, an increase of 6.6 per cent compared to the same time last year.

CoreLogic’s head of research Australia, Eliza Owen, said the nation’s housing market had become harder for first home buyers to access over time.

“The past two decades saw an increase of around 150 per cent in the CoreLogic Home Value Index nationally, compared with an 82 per cent rise in the ABS Wage Price Index,” she said.

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