Melbourne, Sydney suburbs where homes are selling at a loss

More Aussie homeowners are selling their properties for a loss — including one suburb where the rate is nearly 50 per cent.

More Aussie homeowners are selling their properties for a loss -- including one suburb where the rate is nearly 50 per cent. Picture: iStock.

More Aussie homeowners are selling their properties at a loss in a bid to avoid rising mortgage repayments.

The number of properties making a profit dropped to 92.3 per cent over the March quarter, according to property analytics firm CoreLogic. It marked the third consecutive quarter of decline.

Darwin had the highest rate of loss-making sales, with almost a third (29.5 per cent) of properties selling for a loss. Perth had the next highest, with 13.8 per cent.

More than one in 10 property sellers in both Sydney (10.7 per cent) and Melbourne (10.2 per cent) sold for a loss — the cities’ highest rates in 14 and 25 years, respectively. In one Melbourne suburb, the rate was nearly 50 per cent.

More Aussie homeowners are selling their properties at a loss. Picture: Dan Himbrechts.

Bucking the trend was Hobart, where a staggering 99 per cent of properties sold for a profit, followed by Canberra and Adelaide (both 98.1 per cent) and Brisbane (95.7 per cent).

Apartment owners were more likely to sell at a loss, as 15.4 per cent of units resold for a price cut compared to 3.8 per cent for houses — a record gap between the two.

The trend was also more likely to impact investment properties, with investors (12.6 per cent) three times more likely to cop a loss than owner-occupiers (4 per cent).

CoreLogic also found Aussies were selling their homes more quickly, with an increased number of properties returning to the market less than two years after they were last sold.

“Such short selling times that involve sellers incurring a loss may be considered unusual, because hold periods typically increase during housing-value downturns, as sellers try to avoid making a loss,” CoreLogic head of research Eliza Owens explained.

“The implication may be that some sellers are choosing to incur a loss from resale in order to avoid particularly high mortgage repayments in the current rate-hiking environment.”

Apartments and investment properties were most impacted. Picture: Joel Carrett.

Melbourne suburbs with the most loss-making sales

1. Melbourne City — 46.6 per cent of sales, $55,000 median loss
   
2. Stonnington — 29.2 per cent of sales, $55,700 median loss
   
3. Boroondara — 25.9 per cent of sales, $37,000 median loss
   
4. Yarra — 22.3 per cent of sales, $40,000 median loss
   
5. Port Phillip — 21.1 per cent of sales, $46,250 median loss
   

Sydney suburbs with the most loss-making sales

1. Strathfield — 35.1 per cent of sales, $40,000 median loss
2. Botany Bay — 33.8 per cent of sales, $60,500 median loss
3. Burwood — 31.9 per cent of sales, $45,000 median loss
   
4. Parramatta — 28.8 per cent of sales, $57,000 median loss
   
5. Ryde — 25.1 per cent of sales, $58,500 median loss