$1 million property market sales on the rise: CoreLogic's Cameron Kusher
Over the 12 months to June 2016, 14.0 percent of all house sales and 7.3 percent of all unit sales were at a price of at least $1 million.
To put these figures into perspective, just five years ago 7.5 percent of all house sales and 4.0 percent of all unit sales were within this price point.
Research shows that the combined capital cities saw a much higher proportion of sales of at least $1 million over the past year.
Across all house sales, more than 1 in 5 sales (20.9 percent) were for at least $1 million compared to 8.9 percent of all unit sales.
Within the regional areas, the sale price for houses and units are typically lower than those in capital cities.
An emerging trend worth noting is the fact that the difference between the proportion of house and unit sales of at least $1 million is much narrower in regional areas.
In regional areas we tend to see that units are only located in larger regional markets and often are positioned in relatively expensive waterfront locations. Often the proportion of unit sales at, or above, $1 million has been above that for houses. Over the past year, 3.3 percent of all regional house sales and 3.0 percent of all unit sales were at least $1 million.
Over the past 10 years in particular, we’ve seen a substantial rise in the proportion of sales of at least $1 million.
CoreLogic data confirms that in Sydney, over the past year more than 2 out of every 5 house sales was at least $1 million, and in Melbourne, 1 in 5 house sales was at least $1 million. Sydney had a higher proportion of total unit sales of at least $1 million than the proportion of house sales at that price point in each city except for Melbourne. (Refer adjacent table which highlights the proportion of sales of at least $1 million over the past year, a decade ago and 20 years ago.)
There is an element of bracket creep in the numbers, however, as the supply of affordable homes selling has declined significantly over recent years, an increasing proportion of stock is selling for a seven figure sum.
Demand for premium housing and within the most expensive areas of the country remains buoyant which suggests that over the coming year the proportion of sales at a price point of at least $1 million will continue to rise.
Cameron Kusher is research analyst for CoreLogic. You can contact him here.