The property market in Australia is defying the naysayers and continues to kick early in 2022.
House prices around the country rose by 1.1 per cent in the first month of the new year and have jumped around 22 per cent in the last 12 months.
While Melbourne and Sydney have both been strong, it’s been Brisbane leading the way for our capital cities with a 2.3 per cent jump in January off the back of a 29.2 per cent lift over the last year.
“The early indication is that housing markets are starting 2022 with a similar trend to what we saw through late last year,” CoreLogic research director Tim Lawless old the ABC.
“Values are still broadly rising, but nowhere near as fast as they were in early 2021.”
To try and predict what will happen for the rest of the year, Mr Lawless said a key driver would be how many current owners looked to sell.
The standout city performers of Brisbane and Adelaide both have a lack of current supply.
“The trends in advertised supply levels go a long way towards explaining the performance of housing values,” Mr Lawless said.
“The situation in Adelaide and Brisbane is very different; supply remains tight and buyer competition is a key factor supporting the upwards pressure on prices.”
While the capital cities have been good, the real stars of the property market have been out in the regions.
The best regional markets have been within a reasonable distance of the major cities and those that offer lifestyle.
A good example is Shell Cove, which is a one-and-a-half-hour drive from Sydney where real estate agent Cooper Askew plies his trade.
Mr Askew told the ABC that while thig have cooled off a bit, there’s still plenty of action.
“We like to say we’ve gone from 150 kilometres an hour on the highway to 120 kilometres,” he said.
“It is quite a strong market with a lot of buyer demand.”
“In terms of the supply that we can offer first home buyers, it’s extremely limited.
“A lot of them have maximum budgets of about $750,000 to $800,000 … and there’s thousands of them, but we don’t have thousands of properties to sell them.”
As the pandemic rolls on, so does the trend away from units and apartments as people search for more space and distance.
House prices were up 1.3 per cent in January compared to just 0.3 per cent for apartments.
CoreLogic says the gap between the median house and unit price in Australia has risen to a record 28.3 per cent.
If this gap continues much further, it could well see a slow shift back to medium and high density living out of financial necessity as much as anything else.
