Home prices reached a record high, rising 0.3% in July and 4.9% in the past year.
Australia’s median home price hit a new record high in July, but the pace of growth slowed over the month.
The median price of a house is now sitting at $915,000 nationally, with the median unit price $678,000. Home prices in capital cities are even higher, with the median price of a house surpassing $1 million this quarter to reach $1,082,000 in July, while units were $697,000.
Despite the lift in values, the rise of 0.3% was the smallest seen so far this year. In part, this may have been due to the Reserve Bank’s surprise decision to keep interest rates on hold in July, despite the market widely expecting a cut.
Regional areas outperformed their capital city counterparts in most markets, recording stronger growth over both the month and the year.
South Australia and Queensland recorded the strongest price growth across their respective regional areas, both lifting by 0.6% over the month. Regional South Australia has been the strongest performing market over the past 12 months, with its median price up by 12.5%.
Regional Western Australia and Regional Queensland follow for year-on-year growth, up 10.2% and 9.8%, respectively.
Units slightly outperformed over July, recording 0.4% growth compared to 0.3% growth for houses. Year-on-year, however, houses are slightly ahead, up 4.9% versus 4.7% for units.
Despite the national trend, many capital cities have seen unit markets significantly outperform houses, the most notable being Brisbane (13% vs 7.8%) and Perth (11.4% vs 7.3%).
Six of the top ten best performing regions over the past 12 months can be found in Queensland, with Townsville taking the crown at 16.7% growth.
Townsville’s outperformance comes off the back of high buyer demand from both owner occupiers and investors. Supporting demand has been a strong local economy, population growth, and a shortage of housing, particularly rentals.
Mackay–Isaac–Whitsunday and Western Australia’s Wheat Belt round out the top three, with growth of 14.5% and 14.3%, respectively.
While the number of homes for sale has slowed over winter, buyer demand remains strong and auction clearance rates are sitting at the highest level in over two years.
Searches to buy homes on realestate.com.au are also sitting higher compared to a year ago – a good indicator of upcoming demand.
There is also growing evidence of a ‘fear of missing out’ among buyers. According to the Westpac-Melbourne Institute’s July Consumer Sentiment Index, three quarters of consumers surveyed expect home prices to rise over the next 12 months.
Earlier this week, Consumer Price Index data for the June quarter was released, showing that year-on-year inflation has continued to moderate. This increases the chance of an interest rate cut in August, with more forecasters expecting at least one more rate cut before the end of the year.
Lower interest rates will help to improve borrowing capacities and add to price growth momentum. Tempering growth, however, affordability remains a key barrier for many buyers.
Methodology
The PropTrack HPI model measures changes in residential dwelling values across Australia, providing an up-to-date and accurate assessment of housing market performance and trends. The PropTrack HPI is calculated daily and reported monthly. It includes all properties that are defines as residential and are grouped as residential units, houses and all dwellings.
Measuring the change in the value of homes can be challenging because the size and quality of dwellings that transact over time are no representative of the broader stock of dwellings. The PropTrack HPI model overcomes this by implementing an adjacent period hedonic imputation methodology. This method captures the rate of change of home values by adjusting for the compositional differences in property attributes. The model leverages hedonic regression by measuring the relationship between observed prices and property features, including information about each property's location and time of sale.
The PropTrack HPI is a revisionary index. The full history is recalculated each month, and index values for the latest three years are revised. This is an important feature because it compensates for the delay in the receipt of comprehensive official records of sales transactions after settlement occurs. The revisionary nature of the PropTrack HPI mitigates significant revisions when new data are received.
PropTrack aligns to the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) as defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
For more detailed information on the PropTrack HPI, please visit our website to download the full methodology. This template was updated on 1st August 2025.
