Property Update - August 2025

Monthly highlights
 

• The rolling quarterly trend for national dwelling values came in at 1.8% over the three months to July, the highest quarterly increase seen since this time last year.

• The pace of growth in national home values has held relatively steady through August, with the rolling 28-day change in the Cotality daily Home Value Index coming in at 0.6% over the four weeks to August 13th.

• Cotality estimates 42,801 sales occurred nationally in July, taking the rolling 12-month count to 526,747, roughly in line with the levels seen this time last year (0.4%) and 1.9% above the previous five-year average. Across the combined capitals, annual sales activity was down -0.9% year-on-year but was 3.7% above the historic average. In contrast, regional sales counts came in 3.0% higher than last year but -1.2% below the average.

• The flow of newly advertised listings has continued to track well below average (-8.8%) through July, with just 32,481 newly listed properties nationally over the four weeks to August 3rd. Although we typically see fewer new listings thought winter, current numbers are -11.5% below the levels seen this time last year and are roughly in line (-0.4%) with those seen in 2020 amid covid lockdowns and viewing restrictions.

• Auction clearance rates continued to trend higher in July, with the combined capitals reaching a 17-month high over the week ending 20 July 2025 (69.4%). Over the four weeks to 3 August 2025, 68.3% of capital city auctions on average were successful. Sydney had the highest four-week average clearance rate at 69.6%, followed by Melbourne (67.9%), while Canberra had the lowest at 65.1%.

• Rental growth continued to ease in the June quarter, with the national rental index recording its smallest Q2 increase (1.3%) since 2020. Over the year, national rents increased by 3.4%, which is less than half the 7.8% rise seen over the 2023-24 financial year, but still 1.4 percentage points above the pre-COVID decade average of 2.0%.

• The Cotality Rental Value Index ticked higher last month with national rents up 3.7% over the year to July, up from the 3.4% increase seen over the 12 months to June. This re-acceleration comes following 16 consecutive months of a falling or stable pace of rental growth, with Darwin (7.3%), Brisbane (4.6%) and Sydney (2.4%) leading the uptick across the capitals, up 90, 70 and 50 basis points respectively relative to the year to June.

• The volume and value of new home loan commitments rose in the June quarter, up 1.9% and 2.0%, respectively. Investors drove the increase in volume, with loan commitments rising 3.5% over the quarter compared to the 0.9% lift for owner occupier. For loan value, however, owner occupiers accounted for most of the rise, with the total value of commitment up 2.4%, versus a 1.4% increase in total investor loan value.

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