Earned good money this year? Your house might have earned you more
CoreLogic’s Pain & Gain report showed record results for Australian home sellers in the past three months
2 min
How much did you earn this year? Was it more than $295,000?
That’s the median profit Australian home sellers made in the past three months according to data from CoreLogic released today. The property data provider released its Pain & Gain Report for the September quarter analysing 95,000 dwelling resales. The gains revealed the highest results since records began in the 90s. Total nominal gains were also higher, at $33.98 billion up from $33.3 billion in the previous quarter.
Australians are also holding onto their homes for longer, with the median period of home ownership now 9 years. For those who sold this year, that means they bought in 2015. The report noted that national home values have increased 57.7 percent in that time
Houses continued to represent the best option for capital growth, with just 2.9 percent selling at a loss compared with 9.4 percent of units. Homeowners who held their properties for two years or less were most susceptible to losses.
CoreLogic head of research Eliza Owen said units were historically more likely to sell at a loss but the likelihood had grown across all properties held for shorter periods in recent years.
The impact on mortgage holders would vary, however, depending on whether they were owner occupiers or investors.
“Investors are potentially in a better position to sell at a loss, because they may be able to offset that loss on future capital gains from property,” she said. “Three years on from mortgage rate lows, the incidence of loss is rising for those who have held between two and four years.”
Indeed, not every home seller walked away with a tidy profit this quarter. The report noted Melbourne was the only capital city to experience a further downturn in values, with 9.9 percent of properties selling at a loss.
The median nominal loss was -$40,000 and the total nominal loss was $270 million over the quarter.
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Australia’s housing affordability crisis is being fuelled by chronic undersupply, planning delays and rising development costs, as politicians continue to focus on the wrong solutions.
3 min
Australia’s housing crisis will not be solved by first-home buyer incentives or tax changes alone, with leading property figures warning governments must tackle supply constraints if affordability is to improve.
Speaking at the Kanebridge Quarterly Property Leadership Summit in Sydney last week, expert project marketing specialist Sam Elbanna, property investor and fund manager Paul Miron and property consultant Karla McNeice said that a lack of housing supply remained the central issue facing the market.
Elbanna, Director of CPM Realty with more than 30 years’ experience in project sales, argued that successive governments had focused too heavily on stimulating demand rather than addressing the barriers preventing new housing from being delivered.
“The misconception is that politicians think the way to solve the housing crisis is to drive demand,” he said.
“The reality is that’s not the way. This is a supply-side problem, and it needs to be solved on the supply side.”
Drawing on his experience in project sales, Elbanna said policies designed to help first-home buyers often had unintended consequences, pointing to previous grants that ultimately flowed through to higher property prices.
Instead, he said developers were facing increasing red tape, approval delays and rising costs, which were discouraging new housing supply.
“In the absence of stock, demand exceeds supply,” he said.
Miron, a Co-Founder and Fund Manager of Msquared Capital, said the housing debate had become overly focused on tax policy while overlooking broader structural issues.
He argued that affordability challenges stemmed from a combination of factors, including planning constraints, supply shortages, migration levels and interest rates.
“No-one can be 100 per cent certain on the real reason for property prices is going up,” he said.
“The reason why property prices are higher is a combination of interest rates, lack of supply, migration, vacancy rates and maybe taxes play a role.”
Miron was critical of recent federal housing policy changes, warning they could reduce the number of new homes being built and further constrain supply that was even highlighted in the budget.
He also highlighted the importance of the property sector to the broader economy, noting that residential real estate and related industries employed more than one million Australians.
McNeice, who advises developers on sales strategy and market intelligence, said understanding buyers had become increasingly important as affordability pressures intensified.
While affordability remained a major consideration, she said today’s buyers were focused on value rather than simply price.
“People are looking for value for money,” she said.
She said buyers were increasingly evaluating factors such as transport connections, walkability, nearby amenities and flexible living spaces that could accommodate changing family needs.
“What infrastructure is going on? Can I walk to the shops? Can I meet people at the local cafe?” she said.
The panel also discussed the mounting pressures facing developers, with Elbanna arguing that many projects become financially unviable from the moment a site is purchased.
“The viability of a development happens at the moment the site is bought,” he said.
He said rising construction costs, higher interest rates and overly optimistic feasibility assumptions had left some developers exposed as market conditions changed.
While acknowledging the growing number of smaller and first-time developers entering the market, Elbanna said property development required expertise across finance, construction, marketing and legal disciplines.
“It is actually a business that requires a level of expertise,” he said.
Looking ahead, the panel agreed opportunities remained in the market despite current challenges.
Miron said property should continue to be viewed as a long-term investment and cautioned against trying to time short-term market movements.
McNeice said success would increasingly depend on identifying projects that genuinely met changing buyer expectations.
Elbanna said affordable housing remained achievable, but developers needed to deliver more than just homes.
“We can provide affordable housing in this country,” he said.
“But we’ve got to wrap that affordable housing with the things that people want.”
As Australia’s housing affordability debate intensifies, the panellists agreed on one point: without a meaningful increase in housing supply, demand-side measures alone are unlikely to solve the nation’s property challenges.
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