Source: Australian Property Journal
AUSTRALIANS spent more than $688 billion on property over 2021, jumping a huge 57% from the first year of the global pandemic.
According to PEXA’s Property and Mortgage Insights (PMI), the national aggregate value of property sale settlements was up by over half of the previous year’s total, with a 32% bump to annual growth for property sale settlement volumes.
“In what has been a challenging time for many Australians amidst lockdowns and uncertainty, the property market has boomed with purchasers taking advantage of record low interest rates,” said Scott Butterworth, chief data and analytics officer at PEXA Insights.
Settlement volumes exceeded 834,008 nationally over 2021, for a combined total of nearly 1.4 million sales since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In December alone, a record monthly national aggregate property value of $76.7 billion was settled, with NSW alone making up nearly 50% of the aggregate at $31.7 billion in settlements.
PEXA attributes these gains to healthy buyer demand throughout the year, underpinned by the historic low interest rates and high property prices.
“We also believe many consumers have been motivated to purchase more suitable housing to incorporate new working from home arrangements, which may have led to the significant increase in aggregate value of property settlements across the nation,” said Butterworth.
Queensland, for the first time on record, saw the greatest number of sale settlements over the year, with a 41% increase on 2020 and a 59% increase from a pre-COVID 2019 at 232,824 settlements.
This represented a 76% or 116% boost to aggregate sale value of sales from 2020 and 2019 respectively, at $158.5 billion.
“Although nudged out of top spot by Queensland for the first time on record for the number of properties sold during a year, home buyers in New South Wales as a collective have spent approximately $76 billion more on property in 2021 than any other region,” said Butterworth.
In New South Wales, property prices were again on the rise, with the highest aggregate value of sales settlements in the country at over $262 billion. This was up 54% on 2020 and 78% on 2019.
However, NSW witnessed the smallest level of growth in volume of settlements at 228,657, up 25% from 2020 and 36% from 2019.
Victoria recorded around 220,400 properties settled in 2021, a 28% increase on 2020, for an aggregate value of $186 billion settled, up 50% on 2020.
“Consumers in Victoria have experienced more lockdown-related disruption than any other mainland state. However, the state’s property market has demonstrated strong resilience,” added Butterworth.
Of the top ten postcodes for the year, Victoria was significantly represented with six of the ten listed.
In Western Australia, there were 94,418 property sales settlements for the year, a 41% increase on 2020 and 71% on 2019. While aggregate value was up 57% on 2020 and 78% on 2019 at $51 billion.
Finally, in South Australia sale settlements were up 27% from 2020 and 38% from 2019 at 57,615. With the aggregate value at $31 billion, a 47% boost on 2020 and 77% on 2019.
“It was a strong year of growth for regional centres across the country in 2020, with many Australians deciding to make the move to the seaside and countryside. In 2021, we saw much more even growth across both inner-city and regional areas as all states began to loosen restrictions,” concluded Butterworth.
