The Australian cities that are tipped to crack house price records next year

Almost every Australian capital city will hit record property prices in the next year, a new report has shown, as demand continues to outstrip supply.

Australia’s overall capital city median house price was forecast to grow by 4 to 7 per cent, hitting a new high of $1.16 million to $1.19 million over the next financial year, Domain’s FY25 Price Forecast Report released on Thursday showed.

Sydney was expected to take the lead with its median tipped to crack $1.7 million by the end of next financial year. House price growth in the harbour city was forecast to increase by 6 to 8 per cent, reaching a median of $1.73 million to $1.76 million.

But experts say a two-speed market is likely to persist, with Melbourne and Canberra house prices to record the slowest growth, if not flatline.

Melbourne was tipped to record the slowest growth of the capitals; its median house price was forecast to hold at $1.03 million, with the potential for a slight uptick of 2 per cent, which would bring it to $1.05 million.

Domain head of research and economics Dr Nicola Powell said a combination of factors would push prices higher in most capitals.

“We predict that population growth, construction challenges, and borrowing power will be the key drivers behind the price growth. Demand has risen as housing composition changes, demographic shifts, and [there is] robust population growth,” Powell said, noting home building had struggled to keep up with demand which exacerbated the existing shortage of homes.

“It’s been the chronic structural undersupply that’s been built over many, many years. We just haven’t met the needs of the growing population in terms of social housing and in terms of affordable housing, and that has continued to place pressure on price.”

She said despite Melbourne predicted to overtake Sydney as the most populous capital in the next decade or so, its strong growth was not translating to higher house prices – yet.

“There is going to be a point in time where Melbourne is going to be perceived as undervalued,” she said. “We’re expecting Brisbane to be very close to a million bucks by the end of the financial year, and by the end of the calendar year of 2025 we’re expecting Adelaide house prices to be surpassing $1 million. So what you’ve got are these other, typically more affordable, cities chasing the tail of Melbourne in terms of price points.”

AMP Capital chief economist Dr Shane Oliver said he also expected to see moderate house-price growth across the country except for Canberra and Melbourne.

Prices are tipped to rise as demand continues to oustrip supply.Credit: Steven Siewert

“You’re really looking at a continuation of the multi-speed property market that we’ve been seeing for the last year, where some cities, particularly Perth, are shooting the lights out and others are lagging. Or you’d say Melbourne is languishing,” Oliver said.

He said changes to land tax in Melbourne had meant investors were increasingly pulling out of the market, creating more supply and keeping prices stable.

“There’s been a notable rise in listings in Melbourne compared to other cities, that’s going to be a drag for some time to come through the next financial year. Part of that is the property tax changes, and property investors are thinking, ‘Well, this isn’t the place to be, I’ll invest somewhere else’.”

He said some of those investors were likely to be looking west – given Adelaide and Perth continued to see strong price increases, which was supported by tight rental markets.

The report forecast Perth’s median house price to increase by 8 to 10 per cent. Its median would reach $840,000 to $856,000 by mid-2025. Adelaide was forecast to rise by 7 to 9 per cent, reaching a median of $965,000 to $984,000.

HSBC chief economist Paul Bloxham said the smaller capitals had begun to catch up to the capitals in their housing markets after falling behind.

“If you rank up the cities, and you look at their relative prices, which ones look like they’ve moved out of line? The smaller capitals like Perth, for example, had fallen a long way behind,” Bloxham said. “We have more strength in our forecasts in the smaller capital cities than we do in the larger ones.”

He said Melbourne was also experiencing a hangover from the pandemic, with internal migration away from Victoria continuing, despite strong growth in overseas migration.

“You’re seeing people moving away from Victoria to other states more than you have done in the past,” he said. “The best way to describe it is sort of long tail, disruptive effects associated with the pandemic, and the pandemic related policy response are still impacting Victoria more than elsewhere.”

Unit prices were also predicted to lift in all major city; Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide were the strongest, followed by Perth, Melbourne and Canberra.

“Tight rental markets [are] pushing people to make a purchase, placing demand on units rather than houses – I think it’s affordability. Also, we’ve increased the cost of debt, and we have lower borrowing capacities – that’s also steering demand towards units,” Powell said.