ABS March quarter house price index: NSW houses worth $3.33 trillion

The Covid property boom continues to set new records with the total value of all the houses in NSW hitting $3.33 trillion.

Auctioneer Damien Cooley in action at a home in Ashfield, Sydney. Picture: Gaye Gerard

A property price boom has pushed the total value of all the houses in NSW to $3.33 trillion, giving every residential property in the state an average price tag of more than $1 million for the first time.

The figures released on Tuesday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics reveal that the value of every house in NSW increased by a collective $200 billion in the three months to end of March as prices jumped on the back of ultra-low interest rates.

That translates to every single house in the state increasing in value by more than $4,700 a week.

The ABS figures showed Australia’s total housing stock hit a record $8.29 trillion at the end of March, marking the largest rise on record and the first time that the value of houses has exceeded $8 trillion. At the end of December Australia was sitting on $7.84 trillion worth of housing.

To put this in context all the superannuation assets in Australia are valued at over $3 trillion and the value of all the shares listed on the ASX is $2.2 trillion.

NSW accounts for approximately 40 per cent of the total value of housing in Australia, with the state boasting more than 3.29 million houses, according to the ABS.

The average price of residential houses in NSW rose to $1.01m and was the highest in the country. This was the first quarter where the mean price of dwellings in any state or territory has risen above $1 million.

In the March quarter average house prices in Victoria hit $834,600 with the state’s total housing stock valued at $2.31 trillion. In Queensland average prices hit 586,200 across $1.25 trillion worth of housing.

Elsewhere, the total value of all the houses in South Australia has hit $418.2 billion with an average price tag of $524,000.

Meanwhile, the total value of all the houses in Tasmania has hit $132 billion, giving every house in the island state an average price tag of a record $528,400.

The figures confirm the view of research house CoreLogic that the total value of residential real estate in Australia reached $8.1 trillion last month.

Home values are expected to be driven even higher in coming months, although the rate of increase has slowed since March’s galloping growth.

Sydney’s final auction clearance rate has held above 75 per cent all year but CoreLogic noted that the trend had clearly softened since late March when the auction clearance rate peaked at 87.6 per cent.

The latest CoreLogic data shows that Sydney median dwelling values had soared by 11.2 per cent over the past year, to reach a record high.

Grant Foley Property director and buyers’ agent Grant Foley said some buyers were already questioning when prices would start to fall but it was vital to understand Sydney’s recent property market history before making such an assumption.

“The previous peak of the Sydney market was about four years ago, in 2017, with dwelling prices only recently increasing above the level achieved back then,” Mr Foley said.

“While many forecasters are suggesting at least another year of solid growth in Sydney, history may yet prove them wrong.”