Cheap homes rising in value faster than prestige homes

Cheaper homes in the lower price quartile of market are growing in value at a faster pace than homes in the upper quartile, according to new CoreLogic figures.

Research director Tim Lawless said the upper quartile typically leads housing market cycles into their upswings and downturns. This occurred in 2023 when higher priced homes outperformed for the first seven months of the year as the market rebounded from its 2022 slump, which was caused by rising interest rates from May.

Then price growth among expensive homes slowed down, and cheaper properties began appreciating at a faster pace through the second half of the year, and now into 2024. Mr Lawless said the lower quartile in every capital city property market recorded superior growth to the upper quartile over the past three months.

At a national level, lower priced homes grew by 2.4 percent, middle priced homes appreciated 1.7 percent and upper quartile properties rose 0.6 percent. The market’s lower quartile is defined as homes within the bottom 25 percent of values, the middle quartile represents 50 percent of the market with medium–range prices, and the upper quartile is the most expensive 25 percent of homes.

“This trend is most evident in Sydney, Melbourne and, to a lesser extent Brisbane, where upper quartile values clearly led the 2023 upswing through the first half of the year,” Mr Lawless said. “The trend hasn’t been evident in Perth or Adelaide where lower quartile home values have consistently recorded a faster pace of capital gains through 2023 and the first two months of 2024,” he said.

Perth continues to record the highest capital growth overall among the capital cities. Home values in the Western Australian capital rose 5.2 percent over the three months to February and are up 18.3 percent over the past year. Perth offers exceptional value to owner occupiers and investors compared to the big East Coast capitals. Its median house price is $718,560 compared to $1,395,804 in Sydney, $942,779 in Melbourne and $899,474 in Brisbane.

Mr Lawless added that Perth had the fastest pace of price growth among lower quartile homes of all the capital cities over the past three months. There was a 2.2 percent difference between the growth rate of lower priced homes and upper priced homes. A noticeable spike in East Coast investors purchasing in Western Australia over the past year may be contributing to this superior pace of growth, given most investors target lower priced properties for affordability and stronger rental yields.

Other data just released by CoreLogic reveals the total value of Australian residential real estate increased to an estimated $10.4 trillion at the end of February. This is a new record high, up from $10.3 trillion in January. By comparison, Australian superannuation is worth $3.7 trillion and the ASX share market is worth $3.1 trillion.

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