Australian Property Market Overview

APRIL 2011

The first two months of 2011 saw a slow start to Australia’s capital city property markets, with the majority providing negative growth in the first two months of the year. The exceptions were Melbourne and Sydney houses which continued their growth from the previous year, though only posting moderate gains in January and February 2011.

In the year to 28 February 2011, the Melbourne house market maintained its position as the nation’s top performing residential property market, followed by Sydney units, Canberra houses, Sydney units and Hobart houses. Returns from these property sectors ranged from 9.2% (Melbourne houses) to 6.3% (for Sydney and Hobart houses). Returns were positive in most other sectors for the year, except Brisbane houses, which fell 3.9% and Perth houses down a more moderate 0.3%.