Australian property prices have maintained their upward trajectory through December and into January, establishing new peak values across both housing and unit sectors. This sustained appreciation reflects the persistent imbalance between strong population growth and constrained housing supply, with recent inflation data suggesting earlier-thanexpected interest rate reductions may further support market momentum into 2025.
Market conditions are showing encouraging signs, with construction costs stabilising and improved sentiment around future financing costs. These factors are contributing to a more optimistic outlook for both buyers and developers.
Both houses and units demonstrated aligned growth in January, each posting a 0.7 per cent monthly increase. This parallel performance has pushed the national house price to $903,037, while unit values have reached $673,291, highlighting the broad-based nature of the current market strength.
Perth continues to lead Australia’s housing market momentum, recording an impressive annual growth of 16.7 per cent and a monthly gain of 1.1 per cent. Sydney matched Perth’s monthly pace of 1.1 per cent, pushing its mean house price to $1,589,179, though its annual growth remains more modest.
Adelaide’s market performance continues to benefit from its connection to the mining sector, mirroring Perth’s strong fundamentals with an annual increase of 10.2 per cent, bringing its mean price to $887,266. In contrast, Melbourne’s market shows minimal momentum, with Brisbane’s mean prices steadily narrowing the gap as Melbourne posts just 0.1 per cent year-on-year growth.
Collectively, major cities achieved annual price appreciation of six per cent, moderately exceeding the national average of 5.9 per cent, highlighting the varying dynamics across Australia’s metropolitan markets.
The unit market continues to echo broader housing trends, with Perth maintaining its position as the nation’s strongest performer. The city posted a monthly gain of 1.1 per cent and an impressive annual increase of 17.4 per cent. Adelaide’s unit market has also demonstrated robust performance, achieving 13.2 per cent year-on-year growth.
Brisbane’s strong population growth continues to drive its unit market forward, recording a 0.8 per cent monthly increase and substantial 12.6 per cent growth compared to January 2024. This has pushed the city’s mean unit price to $686,455, positioning it behind only Sydney and the Gold Coast in terms of value.
Melbourne’s unit market continues to face challenges, with year-on-year growth of just 0.2 per cent, significantly underperforming the major cities’ average of 4.7 per cent, highlighting the divergent conditions across Australia’s metropolitan unit markets.
The resources sector continues to drive regional market performance, particularly in Western Australia and South Australia. Western Australia’s regional housing market has surged 14.3 per cent year-on-year, supported by both traditional iron ore strength and expanding lithium production. South Australia’s regional areas have followed closely with 12.4 per cent annual growth, benefitting from increased copper production and its positive impact on local employment and population growth.
Overall, regional Australian house prices have risen by 0.5 per cent monthly and 5.7 per cent compared to January 2024, bringing the aggregate mean to $650,855. Coastal areas in regional Queensland and New South Wales continue to attract strong interest, while regional Northern Territory and Victoria show minimal value movement, highlighting the varying impact of local economic conditions on property markets.
Regional unit markets continue to mirror house price trends, with Western Australia and South Australia leading the nation’s growth. Western Australia’s regional units have recorded a substantial 15.2 per cent year-on-year increase, while South Australia follows closely with 13.8 per cent yearly growth.
Queensland’s regional unit market maintains strong momentum, particularly in coastal areas, posting a 10.3 per cent increase compared to January 2024 and matching Western Australia’s monthly gain of 0.7 per cent. The Northern Territory stands as the only region experiencing a monthly decline of 0.2 per cent, though still maintaining modest annual growth of 0.7 per cent.
Regional Australia’s unit market continues to outperform the national average, with annual growth of seven per cent exceeding the broader Australian figure of 5.1 per cent, highlighting the ongoing strength in regional markets.
LISTINGS ACTIVITY
Listing volumes concluded 2024 in line with 2023 figures, following typical seasonal patterns as the market wound down for the holiday period. However, January 2025 has defied historical trends of a gradual start, with monthly listings reaching 38,657 - a substantial increase over the previous year’s figures, driven primarily by metropolitan market activity.
This early surge in listing volumes appears influenced by renewed market optimism, particularly following recent inflation data that has brought forward expectations of interest rate reductions. The prospect of more favourable lending conditions has notably energised the upgrade market, with these sellers among the first to respond to improving market conditions. This unexpected strength in early-year listings suggests a market preparing for a potentially active first quarter of 2025, marking a departure from traditional seasonal patterns.
January has marked a dramatic rebound in listing activity across major cities, with an aggregate monthly increase of 153.5 per cent from December’s holiday-affected numbers. While such monthly surges are characteristic of the seasonal transition from December to January, the year-on-year comparisons reveal more telling market shifts.
Canberra leads the annual growth metrics with a 30.3 per cent increase, followed by Sydney’s robust 25.9 per cent rise. The Gold Coast, Brisbane, and Perth markets have also demonstrated strong annual growth. Melbourne presents an interesting contrast - despite posting a substantial monthly increase of 134.5 per cent, its year-on-year growth remains minimal at 0.3 per cent. Similar patterns of subdued annual growth are evident in Hobart and Adelaide. Darwin stands as the only major market showing significant annual decline, with listings down 22.5 per cent compared to January 2024.
Regional markets have demonstrated their typical post-holiday dynamics in January, as holiday-makers return to metropolitan areas. While overall regional listings increased by 29.9 per cent over the month, the year-on-year growth remains modest at 0.7 per cent.
Traditional patterns have been upended this year, with regional Tasmania and Northern Territory emerging as unexpected leaders in annual growth, posting increases of 9.2 per cent and 8.3 per cent respectively. Queensland maintains its position as the most active regional market with 4,159 listings, achieving a substantial monthly surge of 53.9 per cent and a solid year-on-year increase of 7.7 per cent.
New South Wales experienced strong monthly gains, particularly in coastal areas capitalising on holiday market momentum, despite trailing behind previous year’s figures. Meanwhile, Western Australia and South Australia, despite benefitting from robust mining sector activity, recorded annual declines of 0.9 per cent and 13.3 per cent respectively, indicating a complex interplay between economic drivers and market conditions.
AUCTION INSIGHTS
The auction market concluded 2024 with moderating clearance rates, though notably closing the gap with 2023’s performance in December. January 2025 has marked a robust start to the year, with clearance rates achieving an impressive 71.8 per cent - substantially outperforming both the January 2024 result of 65.4 per cent and the 2023 figure of 60.2 per cent.
This strong opening to 2025 reflects renewed market optimism, largely driven by expectations of upcoming interest rate reductions. The marked improvement in clearance rates suggests buyers are moving decisively, potentially seeking to secure properties before any significant market shifts driven by changing finance conditions.
Bidder participation at Ray White auctions has started 2025 with notable vigour, demonstrating significant improvement in market engagement. January saw registered bidder numbers reach 5.1 per property, matching levels from January 2024, while active bidder participation increased to 3.1 per auction.
These robust participation rates, while encouraging, should be viewed within the context of January’s typically limited auction volumes. The concentrated nature of early-year auctions often results in heightened competition and stronger clearance rates, as motivated buyers compete for the restricted selection of available properties.
Ray White’s unconditional sales figures reflect typical seasonal patterns as we transition into 2025. Following December’s record-breaking performance, which exceeded $9 billion and set a new benchmark for the group, January’s preliminary results have settled at under $4.5 billion. This month-to-month variation aligns with established yearly patterns, where December typically sees a surge in settlement activity before the holiday slowdown. The January figures, while showing the expected seasonal dip, provide a stable foundation for the year ahead.
