August Property Market Update

August Property Market Update

August delivered the strongest property growth since May, with Australia’s national home value index rising 0.7% despite winter’s traditionally slower conditions. Capital cities outperformed regional areas, with Brisbane leading monthly growth at 1.2%, followed by Perth (1.1%), Sydney (0.8%), and Adelaide (0.8%). Annual results show Darwin topping growth at 10.2%, with Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide all pushing past 6%.

With interest rates easing and the Home Guarantee Scheme kicking off October 1st, market momentum is accelerating. Listings remain 20% below average, as homeowners renovate instead of selling, tightening supply.

If you’re waiting for prices to fall, think again—delaying your purchase could cost you significantly in 12 months’ time. For investors ready to secure a high-performing property and settle before Christmas, now is the time to act.

Subscribe to the Taylored Property Wealth Podcast for the latest property insights, market strategies, and investment opportunities across Australia.

Chapters

• 0:00 August Property Growth Overview
• 0:42 Low Stock Levels and Buyer Hesitation
• 1:24 Capital City Performance Breakdown
• 4:11 Annual Growth Rates Revealed
• 5:34 Call to Action for Investors

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

The home value index for August grew by 0.7%, being the strongest growth since May 2024, as per cotality. My name is Casey Taylor. I am the host of the Tailored Property Wealth Podcast and in today's episode we are doing a monthly recap of August what the performance was and just touching on a couple of different bits and pieces. August was obviously the last month of winter and winter comes with lower stock levels in general and it's roughly around 20% lower on average the listing levels for property right now. There's a couple of different moving parts. For that. A little bit of feedback.

Speaker 1: 0:47

Some of the agents that we're working with is that people are, instead of buying and selling, are now doing renovations on their own property, which is increasing the tenure and the average holding costs of property, and that is one of the impacts of listing levels because there's not as many transactions taking place. Some people are worried that they simply aren't going to be able to find a property once they sell, so they're sitting put. There's so many different things that go into that on those listing levels, but coming into spring there is definitely a little bit more stock moving through. If you're focusing on that quality stock, it does take time to find the property. So if you're getting your pre-approval right now and you're following the right due diligence process, you might not be securing a property and settling until close to Christmas. So if you're motivated and you want to get out there and take action, you need to start making those steps now, especially with that home guarantee scheme that's taking effect on the 1st of October. In some of our marketplaces that we target. That's already pushing pressure because people are trying to rush in before the 1st and that's only going to continue to build momentum.

Speaker 1: 2:04

Now the price growth for August, we have seen an increase across a number of different metro locations, and that's what we are going to be focusing on is the metro locations. We don't really care for regionals, to be honest. Now, for the month of August, Sydney rose 0.8%, Melbourne rose 0.3%, Brisbane rose 1.2% and Adelaide rose 0.8%, and we had Perth rising 1.1%. Hobart was the only one to go backwards at 0.2% and then we had Darwin increasing 1% and Canberra increasing 0.5%. So combined capitals growing 0.8%, combined regionals growing 0.5% and then bringing the national to 0.7%. So capital cities back out in front in comparison to the regionals.

Speaker 1: 3:20

We like capital cities because they consistently perform long-term, whereas some of those regionals might perform higher for a period of time, but it's not as consistent long-term growth. And when we're investing in property we want that compound effect to do its thing. So to be honest, I'm surprised Sydney's sitting there at 0.8% growth, Brisbane out in front, 1.2%, and then you have Perth jumping back up again. So depending where you're targeting, you're seeing some strong growth in those marketplaces. So a couple of these cities annualized as well over 10% growth. 10% return is very solid growth.

Speaker 1: 4:09

If you're sitting on the fence waiting for prices to go backwards, you're going to make a mistake. Now what have prices done over the last 12 months to the 31st of August? Sydney has grown 2.1%, Melbourne 1.4%, Brizzy 7.9%, Adelaide 6.5%, Perth 6.6%, Hobart 2.6%, Darwin 10.2% and Canberra 1.6%. And then if we're looking at combined capitals and regionals, combined capitals 3.6% versus combined regional of 6%. So over the 12 months regionals have outperformed the capitals. But we're always focusing on that long-term growth, not that short-term growth. So some pretty solid numbers in there If you have purchased in the right location.

Speaker 1: 5:01

In the last 12 months just the metro city as a whole has grown strongly. But if you go down into the LGAs there's been a lot stronger growth in some of those marketplaces. We've seen some very solid growth across the properties that we've transacted on last year and we've got people who are now gearing up off that growth and going into another asset. If you are looking to invest, you must get in. We have rates decreasing. We have the government guarantee coming into effect on the 1st of October. If you're targeting the affordable locations early in their growth cycle, you're going to do well if you get that purchase right. Sitting on the fence waiting for things to go backwards or whatever it is going to be, is going to cost you far more money because in 12 months time, when properties continue to grow and you're trying to take action, you are going to be paying more for the same asset. I bang on about it all the time, but I cannot stress it enough. This is a quick monthly recap. I hope you've enjoyed and we'll see you on the next episode.