‘Once in a generation boom’ causes home prices to climb 40pc in 2020s
Property prices have just experienced the third-fastest boom on record, with new analysis revealing the spots around the country where homeowners have made a motza | SEE THE LIST
Some parts of the country have experienced a near doubling in property prices since the pandemic, with challenging economic conditions failing to offset equity gains spurred by cheap credit at the start of the decade.
New analysis from housing researcher PropTrack has revealed national property prices have surged 39.9 per cent since the Covid-19 lockdowns began in March 2020 to March 2024. The change marked the third fastest boom in history, with home values hitting a fresh high last month as gains continue.
Regional areas, particularly along the coast, outperformed capital cities over the first third of the decade, up 53.6 per cent. While the country’s capitals did rise by 35.2 per cent on a weighted average, the smaller capitals of Adelaide and Brisbane gained almost double that, up 64 per cent and 63.1 per cent respectively.
Four year prices rises in Perth (up 57.3 per cent) and the ACT (up 37.4 per cent) outpaced Hobart (up 36.1 per cent) and Sydney (up 34.7 per cent). In Melbourne, which experienced the longest Covid-19 lockdowns in the world, property gains were much smaller at 17.2 per cent over the same period, beating only the volatile Darwin market (up 9.4 per cent)
PropTrack senior economist Eleanor Creagh said the “once in a generation boom” has managed to defy doomsayers who anticipated falls of as much 30 per cent though the pandemic. Even now, property prices have continued to rise as the Reserve Bank cash rate holds steady at 4.35 per cent.
“Four years on from the pandemic, home prices around the country have staged a remarkable feat,” Ms Creagh said.
“The supply of properties for sale, population growth, building activity, rental market conditions, interest rates, and interstate and regional migration have all influenced home price growth as well as how it has been distributed Australia-wide since March 2020.”
While record low mortgage rates spurred a flurry of activity in 2021, the property market proved resilient to the Reserve Bank’s decisions to raise the cash rate by 13 times in less than 18-months. While the RBA expects mortgage arrears to rise in the coming months, expectations of rate cuts on the horizon, combined with a shortage of housing and strong migration, has many commentators betting on further gains.
Queensland’s Wide Bay region, which encompasses Gympie, Maryborough, and Bundaberg, recorded the most significant price rises through the 2020s, up 80.5 per cent in just four years. Similar growth was also recorded in the state’s southeast corner, with the regions of Ipswich, Logan-Beaudesert, and the Gold Coast rising by more than 70 per cent.
Each of these areas benefited from the massive influx of interstate migration when borders were closed to counter the spread of Covid-19. Queensland is home to six of the top 10 highest growth regions since March 2020, welcoming more than 33,000 net new residents from other states in the year to March 2023.
Coastal and regional areas, along with Brisbane and Adelaide, benefited most from affordability advantages and pandemic-induced preference shifts resulting in surging property prices,” Ms Creagh said.
“Four years on and regional home prices have outperformed their capital city counterparts in every state except WA and NT.”
Considerable gains were also recorded in Adelaide’s northern suburbs (up 77.6 per cent), southeast South Australia (up 71.3 per cent) and the holiday town of Mandurah, south of Perth, which rose by 71.1 per cent in the past four years.
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