- Larger cities like Melbourne, Brisbane, and Sydney expected to have a strong 2024.
- Supply is expected to remain a major challenge in 2024.
- Apartments to perform well as affordability challenges bite.
Australia’s property market will continue to fire in 2024, with strong demand pushing prices even higher.
Analysis of the market over the past 12 months shows that transaction levels are up in more than three-quarters of suburbs which is generally a precursor to future property price growth according to Hotspotting general manager, Tim Graham.
Graham says residential real estate defied the dire predictions of some commentators in 2023 that prices would plunge on the back of continual interest rate rises and he expects that to continue to be the case.
“What we are seeing is real positivity in the market and we believe that momentum will continue,” he said.
“Those who hesitated to buy at the start of 2023, will need to pay tens of thousands of dollars more to secure the same property today. And that’s exactly what is going to happen again in 2024.”
Tim Graham, Hotspotting
Graham said regional markets, which experienced extraordinary growth in 2022 and early 2023, will take a back seat to capital city markets in 2024, as will the smaller capital cities of Perth and Adelaide.
“It is the larger capital cities that will achieve strong results in early 2024,” Graham said.
“Price growth softened in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney at the start of 2023, but now we are starting to see a dramatic turnaround. In each of those capital cities, the vast majority of suburbs already have positive momentum in their markets.”
Graham said the biggest issue affecting the Australian housing market and Australian house prices was supply, and nothing was going to change that in the next year.
“Not enough new properties are being built and demand continues to grow.”
“Even though the Federal Government has moved to reduce immigration to more sustainable levels and is now trying to incentivise foreign investors to put their money into build–to–rent projects by reducing application fees, it won’t do anything significant to change the simple fact there are not enough properties to go around.”
Graham predicts apartment markets will perform well in 2024, as many buyers move away from freestanding houses due to affordability issues.
“Suburbs which are dominated by units are now some of the most powerful markets in Australia,” Graham said.
“Apartments are generally more affordable than houses, but they are also still in short supply, so we’ll see some further growth in apartment prices in 2024, particularly in inner city markets and developments close to public transport.”
