Approvals vs Reality The Housing Crisis Explained
Hotspotting
One of the many ways media misinforms Australian consumers is their misunderstanding of the difference between building approvals and actual construction of new dwellings. Right now, at a time when we have major dwelling shortages and construction costs are so incredibly high, there is a very important distinction between the number of dwelling approvals and the number of homes actually being built. The difference between the two is quite stark and it speaks to the biggest single problem amid the housing crisis – approvals often are not translating into actual construction of homes, because...
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Why Apartments Are Booming in 2025
Hotspotting
The Great Australian Dream still exists, it’s just that - for many - it now means owning an apartment, not a house with a white picket fence. As property prices continue to grow, the dream of owning a freestanding house has morphed into the dream of owning an apartment - for more and more Australians. Apartment living is no longer just a financial choice, but a conscious decision to seek out a different way of living - a more affordable and low-maintenance lifestyle. The percentage of Australians who live in a freestanding house has been declining since the beginning of the new...
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Brisbane: Australia’s Hottest Market
Hotspotting
Brisbane was one of the nation’s boom markets in 2024 and likely to do even better this year. The price data shows that Brisbane delivered a strong performance last year, both with house prices and in particular unit prices – but was third in the capital city growth rankings behind Adelaide and Perth. Figures from PropTrack and CoreLogic show Brisbane house prices overall were up 10% last year and unit prices around 15%. In 2025 we expect Brisbane to have another strong year and to overtake those other cities to be the national leader on price growth. ...
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Australia’s Housing Crisis – How Did We Get Here & How Do We Fix It? | The Property Playbook
Hotspotting
🏡 Australia's Housing Crisis: Causes & Solutions With housing affordability at record lows and supply failing to keep up with demand, how did Australia's property market reach this crisis point? More importantly—how do we fix it? In this special episode of The Property Playbook, Tim Graham is joined by an expert panel to tackle one of the most pressing issues facing Australian homeowners, investors, and renters: 🎙️ Panel Guests: ✅ Michael Sukkar – Federal Shadow Housing Minister ✅ Kelly Ryan – CEO of the Real Estate Institute of Victoria (REIV) ✅ Terry Ryder –...
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Mining Towns
Hotspotting
Some investors are attracted to the cheap house prices and very high rental yields in resources sector towns but recent events in two of the nation’s iconic locations demonstrate why this can be a strategy fraught with peril. Hotspotting methodology dictates that a diverse economy is a core factor in any location we are willing to recommend – which means locations dominated by one industry sector seldom make it to our hotspots reports. A country town solely reliant on agriculture, a coastal enclave where everything depends on tourism and mining towns are all places we shy...
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Shallow Analysis
Hotspotting
I sometimes despair for Australians trying to make sense of real estate markets, when the standard of analysis and commentary in news media is so poor. Knee-jerk responses to short-term data sets from economists, journalists and often from the big-name research houses create a mass of confusing, conflicting and contradictory commentary. The commentary around price data is the worst example of this. For a long time, the biggest problem for consumers trying to make sense of market events has been commentators putting too much importance on short-term results. ...
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Regional QLD: 2025’s Hottest Market?
Hotspotting
Regional Queensland had a pretty good year for price growth in 2024 but I’m predicting it will have an even better one in 2025. There’s mounting evidence that the combined weight of internal migrants moving to Queensland and investors increasingly pivoting from Western Australia to Queensland will drive significant price uplift this year. In 2024, according to PropTrack figures, the median house price for Regional Queensland increased 10%, which was well above the national average (4%), and better than our three biggest cities, but was slightly below the level of growth achieved in...
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Next $1M Suburbs Revealed!
Hotspotting
Since the start of the pandemic in 2020, many of Australia’s property markets have experienced some extraordinary price growth. Many locations, both city-based and regional, achieved unprecedented price increases with median house and unit prices soaring as demand hit new highs. Where once a million-dollar house or unit median was unusual, that recent growth launched many locations into that club for the first time. As of January 2025, there were 1,194 suburbs or towns with a median house price or median unit price of $1 million or more – 50 more than in September 2024. These figures show...
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Chalmers vs. Landlords: Who’s Right?
Hotspotting
Was the Federal Treasurer being serious when he suggested that investors pass on the new interest rate cut to tenants in the form of cheaper rents? Has Jim Chalmers lost the plot completely or was he making a shallow pitch to voters on the eve of a Federal Election? To suggest that investor owners are in a position to hand out financial benefits to tenants because of this one, very small, isolated reduction in their costs suggests that Chalmers is either divorced from reality or he’s having a cheap shot at landlords to win favour with renters and maybe a few extra votes. I have to say that...
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$1 Million Homes: Australia’s Housing Crisis
Hotspotting
One of the most significant housing stories in the past year has slipped under the radar of news media, with very little commentary. The latest official data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that it now costs over $500,000 to build the average house in this country. That’s the cost of construction of the dwelling and doesn’t include the land price. Given that the price of residential land is also escalating to record price levels, the reality is that the typical house and land package in a capital city is beyond the reach of most young buyers. This, in...
info_outlineAll the key indicators suggest that the Perth boom is past its peak and subsiding.
Our analysis of all the major market jurisdictions across Australia, using a range of different performance metrics, indicates that Perth will not be the leading performer on price growth in 2025 – or anything close to it.
After two consecutive years as the national leader on price growth, we feel confident in predicting that Perth is unlikely to repeat that performance in 2025.
Perth was undoubtedly the national leader on price growth in 2023. Its median house price rose 16 percent (the national average was 8.6 percent) and its median unit price increased 12 percent (national average was 6.4 percent).
In 2024 Perth repeated the performance, leading on both house prices (up 17 percent) and unit prices (up 19 percent), both more than three times national averages – but challenged in both categories by Brisbane and Adelaide.
But it was evident in the latter part of the year that the rate of growth for Perth was slowing month by month. Earlier in 2024, the annual growth rate for houses was well above 20 percent. With each passing month, the annual growth rate is smaller, although it still appears to be impressive.
And, indeed, there is a growing list of forward indicators which say Perth is on the wane.
Perhaps most significant is that sales activity has declined, even though stock on the market has risen steadily since the middle of 2024. In this regard, Perth is the weakest of the major cities and regional markets, with activity steadily waning.
Vacancy rates are also easing and rents are no longer rising rapidly. Indeed, according to the REIWA, there has been little rental growth in Perth since March 2024. With so many investor purchases in the past 2-3 years, rental supply has risen – changing the supply-demand equation.
Other sources indicate a slowdown in population growth and less demand from investors. The buyer frenzy is subsiding, which is confirmed by our conversations with real estate professionals at the coalface of the Perth market.
For those still interested in buying in the Perth market, a key trend is that more buyers are pivoting to attached dwellings.
One of the main catalysts for the Perth boom of recent years was its cheap houses, but now the city’s median house price is similar to Melbourne and Adelaide. The relative bargains are now being found in the unit market and there are a number of good options there.
But home buyers and investors considering the Perth market need to be aware that the peak of the market has passed and the stellar price growth of 2023 and 2024 is unlikely to be repeated.