Sydney prices soar over September quarter

The booming Sydney market helped push the average property price above $600,000 during the last financial year.

The mean price of a capital city home reached $604,700 at the end of 2014-15 after rising 9.0 per cent during the year, according to new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Prices in all capital cities combined rose 9.8 per cent during 2014-15 and 4.7 per cent during the final quarter of the financial year.

Australia’s other standout market was Melbourne, which grew 7.8 per cent over the year and 4.2 per cent over the quarter.

Brisbane posted 2.9 per cent annual growth and 0.9 per cent quarterly growth, Canberra posted 2.8 per cent annual growth and 0.8 per cent quarterly growth and Adelaide posted 2.7 per cent annual growth and 0.5 per cent quarterly growth.

Hobart grew 1.5 per cent over the year – exactly the same as Australia’s inflation rate – and 0 per cent over the quarter.

Australia’s two struggling markets both went backwards: Darwin fell 1.8 per cent over the year and 0.8 per cent over the quarter, while Perth fell 1.2 per cent over the year and 0.9 per cent over the quarter.

There were 9.5 million homes in Australia at the end of 2014-15 – an increase of 1.7 per cent on the previous year.