$1m property sales hit record high

In its latest Property Pulse paper, research analyst Cameron Kusher said that property prices just keep rising, with the proportion of houses on the market for more than $1 million set to eclipse affordable housing.

“With dwelling values continuing to climb, we anticipate that in another 12 months we’ll see an even higher proportion of sales sitting at or above $1 million,” Mr Kusher said.

“The flip side to this is that the ongoing increase in the proportion of residential properties selling in excess of $1 million highlights the ongoing deterioration in the availability of housing affordability.

“Although the federal government attempted to address housing affordability in the budget this year, it is clear that in order to improve housing affordability, there is much more work to be done on both supply and demand drivers of the market.”

He furthered that the bracket creep should not be a surprise in Sydney and Melbourne, with each of these cities experiencing value increases by 77 per cent and 61 per cent, respectively, over the last five years.

In June 2017, Sydney dominated the capital cities in terms of dwellings valued at $1 million or more, with 47.8 per cent of houses and 21.3 per cent of units.

Values for other capital cities were:

- Melbourne at 25.9 per cent of houses and 7.4 per cent of units;

- Perth at 10.7 per cent of houses and 3.9 per cent of units;

- Canberra at 11.9 per cent of houses and 2.1 per cent of units;

- Brisbane at 7.9 per cent of houses and 2.8 per cent of units;

- Adelaide at 5.3 per cent of houses and 1.7 per cent of units;

- Darwin at 4.1 per cent of houses and 1.4 per cent of units; and

- Hobart at 2.4 per cent of houses and 1 per cent of units.

Overall, 23.2 per cent of all houses, and 10.8 per cent of all units, in all capital cities are valued at $1 million or more.

“While Sydney and Melbourne dominated as the two capitals with the highest proportion of sales at at least $1 million, most other capital cities and regional areas also enjoyed a proportional lift in home sales over the million-dollar mark,” Mr Kusher said.

This is not just a trend in capital cities but in regional markets, too, as the percentage of all houses and units valued at $1 million or more across every regional market was up at 4.1 per cent for houses and 3.5 per cent for units, compared to 3.5 per cent and 3.2 per cent, respectively, over the last year.

[Related: Homes over $2m becoming the norm ]