- The Melbourne housing market took longer to recover from the pandemic
- After asking prices hit $1M in late 2017, they had fallen by mid 2019
- They were back above $1M as the pandemic hit, and are solidly there again now
While Sydney and other capital cities were roaring back from their pandemic downturns from September onwards last year, Melbourne was still stuttering.
A second, long drawn out lockdown had delayed its housing market recovery, but recent data suggests it is making up for lost time now, with the median asking price over $1M.
Asking Prices vs Sold Prices
SQM Research looks at ‘Asking Prices’, and provides very impressive interactive charting, which is why The Property Tribune has chosen them as its preferred property data partner.
SQM also publishes an ‘Asking Prices’ Index for houses and units separately. This is calculated from real-time online listings refreshed on a weekly basis.
It’s the median of advertised prices collated for a specific geography. The Asking Prices are not based on reported sold results which can lag anywhere between 4-12 weeks (and what other research and Institutes usually report on).
Sold prices are historic, and do not tell you what is happening to the property market right now.
Often, asking prices are pretty close to the actual sold prices. In a booming market, they may underestimate the final sales price, and do the opposite in a market heading south. However, they are not often far off the actual sold prices, and work nicely for trend spotting.
The Property Tribune is well aware that dwelling level statistics often combine and weigh house and unit figures together – it’s a black art.
Meanwhile, let’s get back to Melbourne…
Melbourne, 2009-2021
Select part of the chart to zoom in on various years, and ‘reset zoom’ button to return.
As we can see above, the average asking price first went above the 7-figure mark in December 2017 (mouse over the lines to see individual monthly numbers), but then fell back to the mid to low $900K mark in mid-2019.
By January 2020, pre-pandemic, weekly asking prices were back above $1M in Melbourne, and danced around that number for a few months. However, since the turn of the year, they have been sitting above $1M and look set to move on up from there.
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Interactive Charts courtesy of SQM Research, with permission.
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