• 10/10/2024

Australia’s property market hits $688 billion in sales, up 57% in 12 months

https://www.pexa.com.au/news/australias-property-market-hits-688-billion-in-sales-up-57-in-12-months

PEXA News Release| 9 February 2022

The Australian property market has proven its strength as the backbone of the nation’s economy during the global COVID-19 pandemic, with the national aggregate value of property sale settlements growing a massive 57% from 2020, with Australians spending more than $688 billion on property in 2021.

The Property and Mortgage Insights (PMI) report released today by PEXA Insights, the data arm of PEXA – Australia’s leading digital property settlement platform, highlights an increase of 32% in annual growth for property sale settlement volumes, with more than 834,008 completed nationally in 2021, and almost 1.4 million sales completed since the beginning of the pandemic.   

The growth in the aggregate value and volume of property across Australia highlights the strong buyer demand seen throughout 2021 on the back of record low interest rates, together with the rise in individual property prices. This trend culminated in a record December 2021 for monthly national aggregate property value, reaching $76.7 billion settled, with New South Wales accounting for almost half that figure with $31.7 billion settled.

Key property insights broken down via mainland state for 2021:

Queensland

  • For the first time on record, Queensland recorded the most sale settlements of any jurisdiction in 2021 with 232,824, up 41% from 2020 and up 59% from 2019.
  • The aggregate value of all sales was $158.5 billion, up 76% from 2020 and up 116% from 2019.
  • Surfers Paradise was the most popular postcode in the state for settlements with 3,302, followed by Urangan with 3,079 – both postcodes made the top 10 nationally.  

New South Wales

  • With individual property prices continuing to skyrocket in the state, New South Wales again generated the highest aggregate value of sale settlements across the nation, with more than $262 billion settled in 2021, up 54% from 2020 and up 78% from 2019.
  • New South Wales saw the lowest year-on-year growth in volume of sale settlements with 228,657, up 25% from 2020 and up 36% from 2019.  
  • Box Hill was the only postcode to make the national top 10 for property sale settlement volume, with 4,509 settled in 2021.

Victoria

  • Victoria was the only mainland state to not see year-on-year growth from 2019 to 2020 in both aggregate property sale volumes and values. However, the market rebounded strongly in 2021.
  • The state recorded more than 220,400 properties settled in 2021 (up 28% year-on-year), worth $186 billion settled in 2021 (up 50% from 2020).
  • Victorian growth regions dominated the national top 10 postcodes for sale settlements, with Truganina leading the way ahead of Craigieburn, Werribee, Cranbourne, Rockbank and Clyde.

Western Australia

  • Western Australia recorded strong growth in property sale settlements in 2021 with 94,416, up 41% from 2020 and up 71% from 2019.
  • The aggregate value of all sales was $51 billion, up 57% from 2020 and up 78% from 2019.
  • Mandurah made the national top 10 for high growth postcodes, recording 3,120 in 2021.

South Australia

  • South Australia recorded another consistent year of growth in property sale settlements in 2021 with 57,615, up 27% from 2020 and up 38% from 2019.
  • The aggregate value of all sales was $31 billion, up 47% from 2020 and up 77% from 2019.

According to PEXA Insights’ Chief Data and Analytics Officer PEXA Scott Butterworth: “In what has been a challenging time for many Australians amidst lockdowns and uncertainty, the property market has boomed with purchasers taking advantage of record low interest rates.

“We also believe many consumers have been motivated to purchase more suitable housing to incorporate new working from home arrangements, which may have led to the significant increase in aggregate value of property settlements across the nation.”  

Queensland was the shining light for the national property market, leading the nation for annual property sale settlements for the first time on record, recording a year-on-year increase in volume of 41% and in value of 76%. New South Wales came in second for property volumes, however clearly led all states for aggregate property values, with its $262 billion settled in 2021 making up more than a third of the nation’s value in property sales.

“Although nudged out of top spot by Queensland for the first time on record for the number of properties sold during a year, home buyers in New South Wales as a collective have spent approximately $76 billion more on property in 2021 than any other region.

“Consumers in Victoria have experienced more lockdown-related disruption than any other mainland state. However, the state’s property market has demonstrated strong resilience, posting an increase of 50% growth in aggregate property value for 2021, coming second only to New South Wales,” said Mr Butterworth.    

PEXA Insights’ PMI report also analyses growth trends across metropolitan and regional areas, and consumer lending behaviour, with 2021 seeing 617,338 new loans taken out nationally, an increase of 32.5% from 2020.

“It was a strong year of growth for regional centres across the country in 2020, with many Australians deciding to make the move to the seaside and countryside. In 2021, we saw much more even growth across both inner-city and regional areas as all states began to loosen restrictions.

“Despite the major banks winning market-share through 2020, non-major banks have managed to improve their position and arm-wrestle market share in new loans back away from the majors in 2021. With interest rate movement assumed by many commentators to be imminent, the battleground for both new loans and refinances is expected to heat up during 2022,” said Mr Butterworth.

With COVID-19 variants continuing to impact the Australian and global economies, PEXA will continue to closely monitor the local property market across all mainland jurisdictions.

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