Australia’s Property Prices Surge: October 2025 Market Breakdown

Property prices just recorded their strongest monthly rise since mid-2023, signalling a red-hot market under intense supply pressure. In this episode, we unpack Catality’s (formerly CoreLogic) October 2025 results—Perth up 1.9%, Adelaide 1.4%, Darwin 1.6%, Melbourne 0.9% and Sydney 0.7%. Annual leaders? Darwin and Brisbane with double-digit gains.

We dive into what’s driving this surge: first home buyer cap increases, record-low listings, construction shortfalls, and immigration-fuelled demand. Then, we reveal a proven playbook to find value without paying overs—how to target the right LGAs and suburbs, analyse comparables, and stay disciplined when FOMO hits.

If you’re buying or leveraging equity into 2026, this is essential listening. Learn how to prepare finance, strengthen agent relationships, and use timing to your advantage.

🎧 Follow, rate, and share to help more investors make smarter moves in a fast-moving market.

Chapters

• 0:00 October Market At A Glance
• 0:28 City-By-City Monthly Growth
• 2:10 Annual Gains And Standout Markets
• 3:40 What’s Driving Prices Higher
• 5:20 Strategy: Avoid FOMO, Buy Quality
• 6:45 Supply Targets, Immigration, And Pressure

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome back to another episode of the Tailored Property Wealth Podcast. My name is Casey Taylor. I'm the host of the podcast. And in today's episode, we are talking about the property market update for the month of October. And there have been some massive results for the month of October with growth rates at its highest since 2023. So we're going to get straight into this episode today, speaking on the data for the month. Now, this data is from Catality, formerly known as Core Logic. And this is the index as at the 31st of October 2025. So we've got some really strong performance in a number of the capital cities. We have experienced 0.7% growth for Sydney for the month. Melbourne has experienced 0.9% growth. Adelaide 1.4% growth. Perth out in front at 1.9% growth. We have Hobart at 0.3% growth. We have Darwin at 1.6% growth. And Canberra at 0.6%. So the combined capitals is a growth rate for the month of 1.1%. The combined regionals at 1%, making the national growth 1.1%. So if we break that down for the month in terms of the capital cities, there is some really, really strong performance there. Now, what this growth is related to is the cap increases for those first home buyers that was announced 1st of October. Now we have seen on the ground that pressure leading up to the 1st of October, and then there's just been some crazy demand and pressure within the environment, within the marketplace, that is really pushing that pressure on prices. Now for the annual gains for each of the capital cities, we'll run through those figures now as well. So Sydney for the last 12 months has grown by 4%. Melbourne has grown by 3.3%. Brisbane has grown by 10.8%. We have Adelaide growing 6.7%. Hobart growing 2.4%. And we have Darwin with 15.4% growth. And Canberra 3.2% growth. The combined capitals have grown 5.6%. Combined regionals has grown 7.5%. And the national growth for the last 12 months is 6.1%. So if you look at some of those marketplaces over the last 12 months, we have seen a couple of marketplaces do double-digit growth. So Brisbane 10.8%, Darwin 15.4%. We've got Perth that's just under that 10% growth over the last 12 months. And we've got Adelaide 6.7%. And then we've got that Sydney, Melbourne. It's a little bit lower, but there's still been performance there. And Melbourne is really starting to shift and change. So as the months continue on, I expect to really see that annual capital growth rate increase. The reality of it is if you could have purchased 12 months ago and you did not purchase, doesn't matter the marketplace, you're now paying more for the exactly the same asset. Now some marketplaces are a lot higher than others from a capital city perspective. And then if we're breaking it down to that individual suburb level, there is a lot stronger growth than just these figures we're talking about for those capital cities. If you can get the local government area right, if you can get the suburb right, there is extremely high growth to be had. So the national dwelling values increasing 1.1% is the strongest growth since June 2023. So that's pushing the annual growth, like we said, to 6.1%. It's not a bad return on your investment, especially if, like I said, you can focus on that local government area. You can focus on that suburb where growth rates are far higher. The reality of it is this pressure is going to continue. We have that shortfall, shortfall of supply in the marketplace. We have listing levels below what they were 12 months ago, and they were low 12 months ago. So there is limited stock. And when you're out there purchasing, it does take time to find that quality stock. It's going to mean you're going to miss out on some stock as well because you don't want to pay over market value. That FOMO piece is going to really take effect again, like we saw post-COVID with that boom. People are just getting in and paying overs just to get in and secure something. So you still have to take your emotion out of purchasing right now to not pay over. Trust the process. Make sure you're focusing on that quality. Don't lower your standards just to get into something. That's all we're going to go through today is just purely those performance figures and just a couple of things we're seeing on the ground. We've got capital growth at the highest in the last couple of years, and we have a low listing level environment. We've got the government setting a target of that 1.2 million homes over the next five years, and they are falling short on that. So that supply is not keeping up with where we need it to be. Plus, we've got the immigration into the country. So there is that pressure there for growth. If you get the marketplace right, you're going to experience extremely strong capital growth. That capital growth is going to allow you to leverage into further properties and continue to build your wealth. Now is the perfect time to get in and take action. If you're sitting on the fence, if you're fumbling the bag, you are simply going to pay more for the same asset if you wait six to 12 months. And then you have to go out and you have to borrow more money for the same asset. If you have the borrowing capacity now, you need to get yourself in a position to start searching for property. If you are only starting now, the likelihood is that you're probably going to be purchasing in early 2026. If your goal is to purchase in 2026, you want to be gearing up now to get your finances in place, to start property sourcing and securing something. It's going to take time to find that quality property under market value in those areas prime for growth. So you need to set yourself up now for the future into 2026. Hope you've enjoyed this one. It's just some simple data on the market update for October 2025. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you on the next one.