Smaller markets beat out Sydney and Melbourne for premium property sales growth

According to Cameron Kusher, research analyst at CoreLogic, this trend is expected to continue.

“With dwelling values declining and much more rapid declines across the most expensive housing stock it is reasonable to expect the share of $1 million sales to trend lower over the coming year,” Mr Kusher said.

“This will largely be driven by weakening in Sydney and Melbourne. Smaller capital cities are also likely to continue to see the share of $1 million sales climb further too.”

Over the last year to June 2018, 16 per cent of all houses and 8.8 per cent of all units sold in Australia were priced at least $1 million. For the combined capital cities, this was at 24.5 per cent and 10.7 per cent during the last financial year, while only 4.7 per cent of houses in the combined regional markets sold for over $1 million.

The Property Pulse also explored how many $1 million property sales occured in each state and territory over the last 12 months to June 2018:

Sydney

Nearly half of Sydney houses sold for $1 million or more, at 48.8 per cent, down from the peak in March 2018 of 50.4 per cent. Just over one in five units were valued at $1 million or more at 21.2 per cent, slightly lower than its peak in October 2017 at 22.5 per cent.

Melbourne

Almost three in 10 houses sold for at least $1 million in the last financial year, at 29.6 per cent, down from the peak in March 2018 of 30.6 per cent. Only 8 per cent of units in Victoria’s capital city sold for $1 million or over, barely from the financial year before last’s 8.1 per cent.

Brisbane

The sunshine state’s capital city is experiencing a historic high of property sales for $1 million and over, at 9.2 per cent for houses and 3.3 per cent for units, up from 8.1 per cent and 2.8 per cent last year respectively.

Adelaide

South Australia’s capital city is also experiencing record sales for $1 million and over, at 5.9 per cent for houses and 2 per cent for units, up from 5.3 per cent and 1.8 per cent respectively from the previous year.

Perth

Mr Kusher stated that, despite general declines, sales for properties for at least $1 million in Perth has increased to 11.1 per cent and 3.7 per cent as of June, up from 10.9 per cent and 3.8 per cent.

Hobart

Another capital city seeing a record high, Hobart set a new record for at least $1 million house sales at 3.7 per cent, up from 2.6 per cent last year. Unit sales were at 1.2 per cent, which is up from last year’s 1 per cent.

Darwin

Bucking the trend for smaller capital cities, Darwin’s share of sales of at least $1 million were generally down compared to the previous year; house sales remained steady at 3.8 per cent, while unit sales were down to 0.9 of a percentage point from 1.4 per cent a year ago.

This is significantly lower compared to their peaks in 2015, with houses at 5.9 per cent in February and units at 3.1 per cent in August

Canberra

The nation’s capital city saw house sales for at least $1 million at an all-time high of 14.1 per cent, while unit sales were at 2.5 per cent. These are both up from last year’s figures at 12 per cent and 1.9 per cent respectively.