Australia shows two‑speed housing market
- Australia’s housing market split further in March 2026, with PropTrack showing Brisbane and Perth still rising fastest while Sydney and Melbourne slowed materially. - PropTrack put Perth annual growth at 20.9% and Brisbane at 17.7%, while Sydney rose 5.6% and Melbourne 3.2% on the year. - National dwelling value reached A$12.3 trillion in December as supply stayed tight outside the biggest capitals. (abs.gov.au)
Australia’s housing market is moving at two speeds: Brisbane and Perth are still climbing hard, while Sydney and Melbourne are losing momentum. (proptrack.com.au) PropTrack’s March 2026 Home Price Index showed national home prices rose 0.3% in the month to a record median A$908,000, with capital-city prices also up 0.3% to A$1.016 million. (proptrack.com.au) Within that national gain, Brisbane posted the strongest monthly rise among capitals at 0.7%, followed by Perth at 0.5% and Adelaide at 0.4%. Sydney and Melbourne each rose 0.2% in March. (proptrack.com.au) The annual gaps are wider. Perth was up 20.9% from a year earlier and Brisbane 17.7%, compared with 5.6% in Sydney and 3.2% in Melbourne. (proptrack.com.au) PropTrack said more than three quarters of SA4 regions decelerated in March from February, and price declines were starting to appear in some inner- and middle-ring areas of Sydney and Melbourne. (proptrack.com.au) Supply helps explain the split. SQM Research said total national listings rose 3.5% in March to 234,734 dwellings, with Sydney listings up 5.3% and Melbourne up 2.9%. (sqmresearch.com.au) Brisbane listings rose 6.3% in March but were still 15.4% lower than a year earlier, while Perth listings jumped 12.0% and remained 21.7% below March 2025 levels. (sqmresearch.com.au) That means buyers in Brisbane and Perth are still competing in markets with less available stock than a year ago, even after the usual seasonal lift in listings. (sqmresearch.com.au) (proptrack.com.au) The market is also getting larger in dollar terms. The Australian Bureau of Statistics said the total value of residential dwellings rose A$384.8 billion in the December quarter to A$12.307 trillion, with the strongest state growth in Western Australia at 7.8% and Queensland at 5.3%. (abs.gov.au) New supply is improving, but not evenly. The Australian Bureau of Statistics said total dwellings approved rose 29.7% in February to 19,022, including a 101.2% jump in private-sector dwellings excluding houses. (abs.gov.au) For now, the pattern is clear: Australia still has one housing market on paper, but March data show very different conditions in Perth and Brisbane than in Sydney and Melbourne. (proptrack.com.au) (sqmresearch.com.au)
