Melbourne median house price rises $175,000, city ready to boom out lockdown: ABS, Knight Frank
The city’s average house price has surged in the space of a year, and a global property powerhouse believes a “bounce back” from Covid-19 restrictions will add to the boom.
Melbourne’s median house price has surged $175,000 in the space of a year, according to the nation’s top data boffins.
Latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show the city’s typical home piled on $491 a day in the 12 months to June 30, including a $45,000 lift to $895,000 in the final three months.
It comes as global property giant Knight Frank predicts Covid-19 restrictions could launch renewed activity in the city’s property market and help drive Australia up global standings, after it ranked seventh in the world for growth in the past financial year.
RELATED: Templestowe house shocks with $1000-a-day price rise in few weeks
First-home buyers: call for stamp duty tweak as affordable suburbs dip
$48.5m land sale on Melbourne road where prices are $40m higher on one side
The ABS figures, released on Tuesday, also include a 6.1 per cent lift to Melbourne’s residential price index, an algorithm that tracks home prices, including units, townhouses and apartments, more broadly — not just those sold.
It’s the highest three-month growth since the index rose 6.6 per cent in December 2009.
Despite this, Melbourne’s was the nation’s fourth fastest growing market, behind Canberra, Sydney and Hobart.
The growth rounds out a huge growth phase in the city’s property price index over the past financial year, with a 15 per cent increase despite Melbourne’s property market being shutdown for months during the city’s second wave Covid-19 lockdown last year and a handful of short lockdowns earlier this year.
The ABS data does not cover Melbourne’s fifth and sixth lockdowns.
Knight Frank’s latest Global House Price Index, released yesterday, ranked Australia’s property market the world’s seventh best with a 16.4 per cent increase in the firm’s house price index.
The list was topped by a 29.2 per cent increase in Turkey, followed by a 25.9 per cent rise for New Zealand.
The USA, Slovakia, Sweden and Luxembourg also outranked Australia in the list of 55 nations. Spain was ranked last after its index slipped down by 0.9 per cent.
Knight Frank head of residential research Michelle Ciesielski said with Melbourne achieving double-digit home price growth despite several months in lockdown during last year’s Covid-19 second wave, she expected the city would rebound strongly as current restrictions eased.
“We have seen a bounce after these restrictions have eased each time,” Ms Ciesielski said.
“For a city impacted by several lockdowns, the results have been quite strong.
“People are certainly reassessing the way they want to live, and those in Melbourne have experienced that more than anywhere.”
However, she noted how Melbourne’s market went this spring would be quite important — particularly given the city largely missed its primary selling season last year.
The city would also likely experience a rush of buying after international travel restrictions shifted, with the firm’s Asia-Pacific project-marketing team reporting Melbourne “tops their list” of cities they want to buy in when travel can resume.
“So there’s still potential for Australia to go further up the rankings, and we have been in the top three in the past,” Ms Ciesielski said.
ABS Head of Prices Statistics Michelle Marquardt added it was important to note houses rather than apartments were leading the growth in Melbourne, and across most of the rest of the nation.
“The continued growth in property prices was occurring at a time of record-low interest rates,” Ms Marqhardt said.
“Persistently low levels of stock on the market were being met with strong demand and properties transacting at an increasingly rapid rate”.
The ABS median house prices are preliminary and subject to revision over the next 12 months.
Sign up to the Herald Sun Weekly Real Estate Update. Click here to get the latest Victorian property market news delivered direct to your inbox.
MORE: Hillside: unusual Tudor-style home poised to double in value in six years
Melbourne auction results: Canterbury home on ‘iconic street’ sells for $8m+
Patricia Ilhan: Widow of ‘Crazy John’ Ilhan sells Brighton block for more than $20m
Originally published as Melbourne median house price rises $175,000, city ready to boom out lockdown: ABS, Knight Frank