Housing boom: Buyers splurge $178bn in three months

Home prices and sales have spiked even further with $178bn spent on property across the nation in the past three months alone.

Homebuyers have splashed more than $178 billion on residential real estate across the country in just three months, with most of the homes being bought in Queensland.

New figures from digital settlements platform, PEXA, reveal 183,288 settlements were finalised in the September quarter — an 11 per cent increase on the same period last year.

Almost $28 billion, or 20 per cent, more cash was splurged on property in this period than in the same quarter a year ago, when only $148.9 billion worth of transactions were finalised.

NEWS:

90pc of Aussies can’t buy a home without help now

Price growth in Australia’s haunted suburbs

This three-bedroom house at 12 Edith St, Newtown, recently sold for $775,000.

Queensland recorded the highest number of residential settlements, while Brisbane maintained its position as Australia’s second most expensive capital city — increasing its median sales price to $780,000 behind Sydney’s $1.03m.

Nearly $40 billion was spent on residential property in Queensland during the quarter, with the figures showing 48,361 home sales were finalised in the three months to the end of September.

PEXA Group chief economist Julie Toth said strong population growth continued to support strong underlying demand for housing in Queensland.

Analysis by .id (Informed Decisions) shows NSW lost 31,183 residents in the year to March — most of which moved to Queensland, which gained 30,930 people over the same period.

“QLD’s composition of population growth strongly favours homebuyers,” Ms Toth said.

MORE:

The secret to creating a $5.2m ‘winning home’

Owner rejects $17m for celeb party home

Julie Toth, Chief Economist at PEXA Group.

“Although NSW and VIC receive the bulk of overseas migrants, these migrants are predominantly international students and temporary migrant arrivals, who are much more likely to rent, rather than buy dwellings.”

Victoria was the nation’s third busiest state overall, with 44,482 residential settlements in the September quarter.

The data also shows Victoria’s 76 per cent of property settlements with a mortgage was the second highest in the nation behind Western Australia, and a major indicator of first-home buyers picking up the slack from investors.

RELATED: The solution to Australia’s housing woes

Green light for 1000 new homes in desperate city

This three-bedroom townhouse at 7 Babaco St, Tarneit is on th market for between $490,000 nd $530,000.

“The pattern we are seeing in Victoria is that sales are highly concentrated … in other states the sales are dispersed across a greater area,” Ms Toth said.

“A lot of these will be first-home buyer sales. People buying their own homes rather than buying an investment do have a higher percentage that take out a mortgage.”

The two postcodes across all states with the highest number of home sales settled in the three months were in the Victorian first homebuyer hotspots of Tarneit and Craigieburn, with more than 1000 settlements each.

In NSW, the top 10 postcodes for residential settlements were all within Greater Sydney, with areas such as Marsden Park and Oran Park in Sydney’s west continuing to attract significant interest due to their large-scale greenfield housing developments.

This four-bedroom house at 23 Euphoria St, Craigieburn is on the market for $690,000 to $730,000.

In Queensland, the busiest postcodes were Newtown in Toowoomba (902 sales), and Surfers Paradise (859), while in South Australia, the top areas were the outer Adelaide suburbs of Munno Para West) and Andrews Farm.

Queensland also recorded the highest volume of new home loans being taken out (37,797) during the quarter, followed by NSW with 35,407.

Mark Costello of iThink Property in Toowoomba said he was not surprised Newtown had recorded the highest number of residential settlements in the state.

The Queensland city of Toowoomba recorded a high volume of property settlements in the September quarter.

“The suburb is popular among first homebuyers, investors, and those looking for family homes close to the CBD,” Mr Costello said.

“It’s still very affordable and has potential for future capital growth.”

Ms Toth said the research showed demand for new housing continued to outstrip supply, resulting in an increase in more buyers seeking existing properties.

“Growth in new housing supply — including housing and apartments — has continued to lag behind growth in demand for new housing nationally in most locations,” she said.

“New homes are taking longer and costing more to build than in the past. High labour and material costs have added to the rising price of new builds. These capacity constraints are pushing more buyers into the market for existing home and pushing home prices higher.”

Originally published as Housing boom: Buyers splurge $178bn in three months