Ministers love to claim credit for things like cheaper petrol and cheaper pharmaceuticals – why not cheaper housing?
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Residential property prices in Australia’s eight capital cities have fallen by an average of 2.5% from their most recent peak in March, according to data published earlier this week by both Cotality and Proptrack. The declines have been somewhat greater in Sydney and Melbourne – 5.6% and 5.7% respectively – where they started earlier, than in other cities. Indeed, prices have not yet begun to fall in Perth, Hobart or Darwin, nor have they (on average) declined outside the capital cities.
Those falls are likely to continue, and to become more widespread, for some time yet. The major banks are predicting that capital city prices will be flat to down 5% over the course of 2026, with larger declines of between 3 and 10% in Sydney and Melbourne. Others have forecast that prices could fall by between 5 and 10% this year.
