Australian House Prices 2023: How Expensive is It?

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If you’re wondering how much Australian house prices are in 2023, this blog post will run through the median house price and unit/flat price in Australia’s major cities.

Before buying a house in Australia, it’s crucial to research the Australian property market to learn about real estate trends and average prices in the different regions.

The median house price in Sydney is currently 2.1-times higher than the median house price in Perth, for example.

While British expats from London or the southeast of England can usually buy a much bigger home in places like Perth or Adelaide than they could afford in the UK, anyone from a cheaper area moving to Sydney, Melbourne or Canberra will likely find quite the opposite.

The price of my old 3-bedroom house in the West Midlands, UK, for example, would only buy a studio apartment in Sydney.

Australian property prices also increased dramatically in most regions during 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic. While there was a subsequent fall in real estate prices, in 2022 and early 2023, the median house price in some cities is still heavily inflated.

Read on to find out more about the Australian housing market in 2023. Alternatively, watch my YouTube video below.

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Australian Property Prices: Table of Contents

• Median house prices
• Median unit/flat prices
• Annual real estate trend in Australia
• Quarterly real estate trend in Australia
• Real Estate values since the Pandemic
• Real estate trends during the pandemic
• Interest rates in Australia

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Australian Median House Prices July 2023

To give you an idea of Australia’s varying property markets, here are the current median house prices in Australia for each capital city using the CoreLogic monthly property report from July 2023.

Remember that median means the middle value, so half the properties in those cities will be cheaper than the median value and half will be more expensive!

1. The Sydney median house price in July 2023 was $1,333,985, making Sydney the most expensive Australian capital city to buy a house in.
2. Canberra house prices are the second-most expensive, with a median value of $958,950.
3. Melbourne house prices are the third highest in the country, with a median value of $923,881.
4. Brisbane has the fourth-highest property values for houses, with a median price of $819,832.
5. The fifth-most expensive city to buy a house in is Adelaide, with a median price of $722,793.
6. Hobart is the third-cheapest capital city in Australia for houses, with a median price of $696,570.
7. With a median house price of $625,969, Perth has the second-cheapest houses in the country.
8. The capital city with the cheapest real estate in Australia is currently Darwin, with a median house price of only $583,913.

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Australian Median Unit/Apartment Prices July 2023

If you’re interested in buying an apartment in Australia, here are the median prices for units (flats) from the same July 2023 CoreLogic report.

1. Sydney is the most expensive capital city in Australia for units, with a median value of $817,059.
2. The second-most expensive city is Melbourne, with a median apartment price of $603,829.
3. Canberra unit prices are the third highest of the capital cities in Australia, with a median value of $600,828.
4. Hobart has the fourth-highest unit prices, with a median value of $527,345.
5. The fifth-most expensive city for flats is Brisbane, with median price of $520,346.
6. Adelaide apartments have the sixth-lowest median value in Australia, at $456,076.
7. With a median price of $422,545, Perth has the second-cheapest unit prices in Australia.
8. The city with the cheapest real estate in Australia for apartments, is Darwin, with a median unit price of only $371,073.

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Australian House Prices Annual Change in Value 2023

Next, I’ll run through the changes in property prices for each Australian state capital city during the 12 months to the end of July 2023. This should give you an idea of real estate trends in the last year.

Note that prior to 2022, most cities saw extreme growth in real estate prices due to the pandemic housing bubble. The low growth or decline in 2022 and 2023 was the next stage of the property cycle.

1. The Australian city with the highest growth in house prices during the year to 31 July 2023 was Canberra, with an average increase of 7.9%.
2. Perth had the second-highest gains, with average property market growth of 3.4%.
3. Third is the Adelaide property market, with an average rise of 1.0%.
4. Darwin came fourth, with a decrease of 1.2% in property values in the year to 31 July 2023.
5. In fifth place is Sydney, with an annual real estate drop of 2.1%.
6. Melbourne house prices came sixth, with a drop in property prices of 4.0%.
7. Brisbane had the second-largest fall in its property market, with a drop of 6.2%.
8. The city with the highest annual decline in property values to 31 July 2023 was Hobart, with a decrease of 11.4%.

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Average Quarterly Property Growth Rates in Australian Cities to 31 July 2023

To give you a more recent idea of where property values are heading in each city during 2023, here is the quarterly real estate growth from 1 May 2023 to 31 Jul 2023.

1. The Australian city with the highest quarterly growth in house prices to 31 July 2023 was Sydney, with an average increase of 4.5%.
2. The Brisbane property market had the second-highest growth in the quarter, with an average gain of 4.2%.
3. The third-highest gain was in the Perth and Adelaide property markets, which both saw an increase of 3.2%.
4. Melbourne had the fourth-largest gain in property values, with a 2.0% increase.
5. Darwin came fifth, with quarterly real estate growth of 1.2%.
6. Canberra had the second-lowest real estate gain out of the Australian cities during the quarter, at 0.7%.
7. Hobart had the smallest gain, with a property increase of only 0.1%.

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Growth in Australian Property Prices Since the Pandemic

To illustrate Australian house price trends since the onset of the pandemic, here are the growth and decline rates for each of Australia’s state capital cities between March 2020 to the end of July 2023.

Note that the property cycle from March 2020, the start of the pandemic, has the following three phases.

1. Property boom: High growth until each city reached a peak between January and August 2022.
2. Property fall: Decline in real estate values until each city reached a trough between January 2023 and April 2023.
3. Recent gains: Steady increase in property values after each city reached its trough.

In the final column below, I have summed the growth and decline through the three phases to give the total change from March 2020 to 31 July 2023.

As you can see, there has been extraordinary growth in property values since the pandemic began in Adelaide (45.8%) and Brisbane (35.4%).

Canberra, Darwin, Perth and Hobart have all seen average real estate values increase between 24% and 30% since the pandemic began until July 2023.

Sydney’s property prices have increased by 18.3% on average since March 2020.

The Australian city with the smallest growth in house prices is Melbourne, with only a 3.8% change in the three and a half years since Covid began.

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Australian Property Market Trends During the Pandemic

To explain some of the changes in real estate values across the Australian cities, here are some of the trends that emerged due to the pandemic.

Relocating from Cities to Regional Areas

One trend in Australia during the pandemic was people moving out of the major cities to live in regional areas.

Many people started to work from home and no longer needed to reach the office every day. This meant a movement towards regional areas that are lower density with cheaper property prices.

Suburbs just outside of the capital cities became very popular, which created a larger demand for property in those regions and thus pushed up the price of homes.

Many regional areas in Australia saw property prices increase at a faster rate during the pandemic than the capital cities, which is quite unusual.

For example, property in the Central Coast, which is a lovely beach area in New South Wales, just north of Sydney, went up 32% in value during the 12 months up until the end of September 2021.

Moving from City Centres to Lower-Density Areas

Another property trend during the pandemic was to move out of city centres to lower density areas on the outskirts of the cities or near beaches.

For example, in Sydney, a lot of wealthy city workers previously lived either in the city or in the Eastern Suburbs beaches, where they could easily reach their workplace. Many chose to move to the Northern Beaches region of Sydney during the pandemic, which is further out and generally lower density.

Property prices in Sydney’s Northern Beaches increased by 37.2% during the 12 months up until September 2021, more than any other local government area in Australia. The median house price in the region went up by $618k.

Moving from NSW and Victoria to Queensland

Another relocation trend during the pandemic was to leave colder states, like NSW or Victoria, to move up to Queensland, which has a warmer, more tropical climate.

Brisbane and the surrounding regional areas, such as the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast, became really popular to live in, which pushed their property prices up.

During the 12 months up until the end of September 2021, property values in the Sunshine Coast, just north of Brisbane, went up 30.2%. House prices in the Gold Coast, just South of Brisbane, went up 26.7%.

Buying Houses Instead of Apartments

Many people chose to buy houses in Australia rather than apartments during COVID-19, which further widened the gap in price between houses and apartments.

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How Interest Rates are Affecting the Australian Housing Market

To counteract the high inflation level in Australia since the pandemic, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) began raising the Cash Rate Target on 4 May 2022, for the first time since 2010.

This rate is the Australian equivalent of the Bank of England Base Rate and affects interest rates across the country.

Since 4 May 2022, the RBA have increased the Cash Rate Target in Australia from 0.1% to 4.1% as at 2 August 2023.

Increasing the Cash Rate meant that interest rates on mortgages went up, and many existing borrowers saw their mortgage payments rise. Higher interest rates also decreases the amount that home buyers can afford to borrow, thus lowering house prices in Australia.

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I hope that was useful for those of you thinking of moving to Australia or simply buying a house in Australia for the first time. If you’ll be renting when you first move over, read my post on rental prices in Australia next.

To learn more about Australian homes, check out my post on Australian vs UK houses!

If you want to look at property for sale in Australia, the best real estate websites in Australia are realestate.com.au and domain.com.au. They are similar to Rightmove in the UK.

Let me know in the comments if you’re thinking of buying a property in Australia, and how you’re finding the process!