We remain in uncharted territory, but Australia’s property markets have seen predominantly positive price growth since February, reports Hotspotting founder Terry Ryder for Property Observer.
Two-thirds of the monthly price results across Australia’s capital city and regional property markets have been positive since February, and if you exclude Sydney and Melbourne that jumps to 70 per cent.
“This means that we’ve had mostly positive house price results from March through September,” writes Ryder. “It’s quite a different reality to the impression created by the reporting in mainstream media.”
In fact six of Australia’s eight capital cities – including Brisbane – have higher prices now than at the start of 2020 despite the pandemic. The other capitals include Sydney, Adelaide, Hobart, Canberra and Darwin.
So who’s to blame for the fear-mongering that’s left a lot of uncertain sellers sitting on the sidelines while 2020 slips by?
Ryder takes aim at those pesky broad-brush property headlines that don’t reveal what’s really going on at a local level.
“Because journalists don’t do in-depth analysis of price information, but simply report the generalised result contained in press releases, there is the ongoing impression of price decline throughout 2020,” he writes.
“The reality is really rather different. Throughout this wacky Covid phase, most market jurisdictions have managed to deliver price growth most of the time.
“The economy may have fallen into recession, but the property market has not – particularly those markets beyond the two biggest cities, which is where most Australians live.”
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