Over half of Aussie housing markets were down in 2022

Oksana Patron

19 January 2023

More than half (51.7%) of the Australian house and unit markets posted a decline in value in 2022 driven down by interest rate hikes, inflation and low consumer sentiment.

According to the CoreLogic’s Mapping the Market Report, which analysed 4,661 house and unit suburbs, Perth was the only capital city which registered a growth in house values during the December quarter, while Adelaide and Darwin recorded modest quarterly increases in unit values.

On the positive note, 48.3% of the analysed markets in Australia demonstrated last year increased value for its houses and units.

CoreLogic’s economist, Kaytlin Ezzy, said that the way the housing market downswing was playing out also highlighted the diversity between capital cities, with Sydney experiencing “the broad-based and sustained downswing” and a number of million-dollar house suburbs across the city fell to 345 in December against 439 in March.

At the same time, Sydney unit value went down by -9.2%, stabilising the city’s median unit value at $772,807, with some suburbs in Sydney’s Eastern part, such as Centennial Park, registering a decline of more than 20% (-23.8%).

Melbourne unit values were down -5.0% since a peak in April, with markets in the Inner city region being among the most resilient to declining values and East and West Melbourne, Southbank and Docklands having recorded annual increases of 12.9%, 9.5%, 9.2% and 8.9%, respectively.

Following this, six (1.6%) of its 371 house suburbs recorded a rise in values in the December quarter and all but eight (2.2%) suburbs recorded a fall in their annual house value.

In Brisbane, the portion of suburbs recording a quarterly decline in house values remained fairly steady but selling conditions for the city’s unit market continued to weaken through the December quarter with values falling -1.8%.

Interestingly, despite the significant growth seen over the past two years, 97.7% of Brisbane’s unit suburbs have a current median value below $750,000.

“The downswing has meant buyers who were previously priced out of some markets might start to see opportunities appearing, particularly in cities where larger downturns have been recorded such as Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Hobart and Canberra,” Ezzy said.

“However, it’s likely much of the benefits of falling values have been offset, with rising interest rates pushing serviceability buffers and mortgage repayments higher.”