Despite talk of a softening market, Australia’s love affair with real estate continues, with the latest data from PEXA revealing more the $150 billion worth of property on the east coast settled during the first quarter of 2022.
PEXA’s most recent Property Insights quarterly report also indicates the January to March volume of sales on both the east and west coast is on par with the record-breaking numbers of 2021.
PEXA Insights’ Head of Research Mike Gill noted the most recent report showed a shift away from the year-on year property growth seen over the past three years, but still settlement volumes remained strong, and some areas were performing better than others.
Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia all recorded at least 20 per cent growth in aggregate value when compared to the first quarter of 2021.
Mr Gill also explained an interesting trend emerging was the strong performance of the east coast metropolitan markets, which PEXA found outperformed regional areas in all east coast states.
“Throughout the Covid pandemic, regional areas boomed, however with restrictions significantly relaxed, it appears Australian home buyers have refocused on the metropolitan regions in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria,” Mr Gill said.
“Given settlement volumes have remained consistent, PEXA’s findings highlight the growth in property prices throughout 2021.”
PEXA’s Chief Data and Analytics Officer, Scott Butterworth said although Australia’s property market continued to demonstrate its resilience, there are many variables yet to play out in 2022.
“A level of uncertainly remains across global markets with new variants of Covid emerging, the Russian invasion continuing, and rising interest rates,” Mr Butterworth said.
“The PEXA Insights team will continue to closely monitor the impact of these issues on the Australian property, most notably the imminent rise in the Australian cash rate as speculated by many of the nation’s leading economists.”
State-by-state snapshot for property sale settlements from January to March 2022
Queensland
PEXA found Queensland had continued its recorded breaking form for property sale settlements, leading the country for a third successive quarter for volume with 51,458 sale settlements, valued at approximately $39 billion.
Toowoomba, Surfers Paradise, Mackay and Bundaberg all made the top 10 postcodes nationally for property sale settlements.
New South Wales
New South Wales continued to lead the nation in terms of aggregate value for settlements, recording $62.3 billion from 48,100 settled sales.
The state experienced a soft January and February, however rebounded strongly in March, the report found.
Victoria
Victoria experienced the highest year-on-year growth (36 per cent) in aggregate sale settlement value, recording $50.9 billion from 50,702 sales settled.
The state’s outer metropolitan growth channels continued their strong performance across the quarter, with Truganina recording the highest number of property sale settlements than any other postcode in the nation. Cranbourne, Craigieburn, Werribee and Clyde all made the top six most popular postcodes.
Western Australia
Western Australia saw a resurgence at the start of 2022, with 2.5 per cemt growth for the quarter when compared to the same period in 2021. This coincided with the state re-opening borders to the eastern states.
The state bucked the trend of the east-coast, with regional areas outgrowing metropolitan areas. Mandurah placed third in the top 10 postcodes for sale settlements.
