For the first time in 5 months, Australia moved back into positive month-on-month growth through October, which is great news for property owners. The combined 0.4% lift in home values was broad based with every capital city apart from Melbourne posting a rise in values over the month.

Although Melbourne’s home values were still negative, a small drop of 0.2% was the smallest month on month drop in values since the Covid-19 related downturn which commenced in April.

Since the announcement that private home inspections were once again permitted across Melbourne, new property listings have surged, clearance rates have skyrocketed, and buyer activity has increased significantly. Based on this recent trend in housing values and activity, it seems likely we will see Melbourne follow the other capital cities towards a recovery over the coming months, strap yourself in.

Another stellar performer is Brisbane, which did a great job in consolidating the growth they saw prior to Covid and it’s not hard to see why Brisbane is earmarked as the next best place to invest in, but more on Brisbane in a separate video.

There are two divergences I’d like to highlight, the first being one we have witnessed happening since the start of Covid, which is the regional areas outperforming the capital cities as more and more people choose to move away from the capital cities into regional areas, made possible by the successful enforcement of working from home. In the seven months since March, regional dwelling values are up 1.7% while values across the combined capitals index have fallen by 2.3%.
The second divergence is the one between house and unit market performance. The rise in capital city housing values over October was entirely attributable to a 0.4% lift in house values, which offset the 0.2%fall in unit values.

As expected, October marked a first careful turnaround in property values across the nation and I have high expectations for November and December for Melbourne and Brisbane.