The housing market has shown remarkable resilience since the end of the Level 4 lockdown, with house prices rising 4.6 per cent over the last three months to hit a record high. Overall, there were 1,520 more residential properties sold this August than last August, which equates to an additional 49 properties sold per day. This is an increase of 24.8 per cent from the same time last year, recording the highest number of properties sold in an August month for 5 years. With August median house prices up 2.4 per cent on July to be 16.4 per cent higher than a year ago.
The price growth has been all the more impressive because it occurred over winter, when the market is normally more subdued, and against a backdrop of considerable economic uncertainty.
The combination of low interest rates, the removal of LVRs, the lack of listings, people’s aspiration to have more space/a bigger backyard, catch up post lockdown and first-time buyers’ desire to get onto the market have all contributed to the uplift in prices we’ve seen over the last few months. Unless we see more listings come to the market before Christmas, we may start to see additional pressure on house prices and affordability,” points out Norwell.