SYDNEY, Jan 2 \u2014 Australia\u2019s housing market wrapped up 2025 with strong gains and record prices, but rate rise fears and decreasing affordability have started to dent market exuberance into the New Year, data from Cotality showed today.<\/p>\n
\u201cA \u2018higher for longer\u2019 setting on interest rates, alongside a resurgence in cost-of-living pressures and worsening affordability pressures, looks to have taken some heat out of the market,\u201d said Tim Lawless, Cotality\u2019s research director.<\/p>\n
The Reserve Bank of Australia cut interest rates three times last year to 3.6 per cent, fuelling a housing boom. But the easier financial conditions have also reignited inflation, with two of Australia\u2019s big four banks now tipping a hike as early as February.<\/p>\n
Key details<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0National home prices rose 0.7 per cent in December to a record median value of A$901,257 (RM2.4 million), figures from Cotality showed. That was the smallest monthly gain in the past five months as prices for Sydney and Melbourne each dipped 0.1 per cent. Adelaide and Perth still pulled ahead with a big jump of 1.9 per cent.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0For the year, national prices are 8.6 per cent higher, marking the strongest annual gain since 2021 when emergency-level low interest rates fueled housing activity.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0The upper quartile of the market, which has been grappling with affordability issues, was about flat in December, while values across the lower quartile and middle of the market jumped 1.1 per cent.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Uncertainty around inflation and interest rates, ongoing affordability challenges and stepped up government scrutiny on lending policies are the likely headwinds facing Australia\u2019s housing market, but the chronic shortage of \u2060supply should help offset the downside risks. \u2014 Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SYDNEY, Jan 2 \u2014 Australia\u2019s housing market wrapped up 2025 with strong gains and record prices, but rate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[116257,116253,116258,72,116254,113,61,60,116255,116256],"class_list":["post-226292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-adelaide-perth-price-jump","tag-australia-housing-market-2025","tag-australia-inflation-concerns","tag-business","tag-cotality-rate-rise-fears","tag-economy","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-reserve-bank-of-australia-interest-rates","tag-sydney-melbourne-prices-dip"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}