Released early August, CoreLogic’s most recent housing market data confirms Australia’s property market is booming, reaching the $6 trillion dollar mark and pushing property values up.

CoreLogic Data Highlights

• Over the last financial year 2014/2015 the total Australian housing market increased by half a trillion dollars!
• Capital city property values rose by 2.8% over July, and grew by 11.1% over 2015 total.
• Sydney might still be the most expensive location to buy a house, but Melbourne has been outperforming Sydney’s housing market in capital gains for the last 3 months. Sydney home values rose by 5.4% while Melbourne’s leapt by 6.1%.
• Sydney dwelling values have sky-rocketed by 48% over the past 3 years, Melbourne by 32%, with all other capitals lagging behind at less than 13%.
• Rental growth on the other hand has dropped back a lot which is affecting rental yields as they have increased by only a tiny 0.9% since August last year, the slowest growth ever recorded.
• “While dwelling values climb across most cities, the pace of rental growth has slipped to a new record low. When you consider that Sydney rents have increased by just 2.5% over the past 12 months while values have climbed 18.4% higher, it is easy to see how yields are getting squashed”, observes CoreLogic RP Data head of research Tim Lawless.
• In good news, Hobart has managed to weather the rental yield fallout better than the other capital cities, enjoying rental growth increases in line with value growth.

The Last 3 Month Low-Down on Australia’s Housing Sector

1. Melbourne takes the crown for best performance with its record 6.1% home value growth.

2. Darwin isn’t looking so hot and comes in as the weakest performer dropping down 3%.

3. Darwin homes enjoyed the best rental yields of 5.7%. Brisbane & Darwin unit yields rose by 5.5%.

4. Melbourne homes had the worst rental yields of 3%, while units achieved 4.1%.

5. Hobart comes in as Australia’s most affordable place to live with a medium home price of $305,000.

6. There is no surprise that Sydney comes in as the most expensive place to call home with median dwelling costs of $790,000.

What about Affordability?

Meanwhile, when it comes to affordability, regional Australia is the place to buy right now. The Housing Industry Association's affordability index reports regional housing affordability has risen by 2.7%.

“In many parts of Australia the extremely low interest rate environment is delivering historically favourable affordability conditions”, says HIA chief economist Harley Dale.