HOUSE prices have doubled in less than ten years in Sydney and Hobart but it’s taken a lot longer to reach the milestone elsewhere in Australia.<\/p>\n
It’s often said seven to 10 years is needed for property values to double but new PropTrack analysis shows it took the median house price 15.4 years through to May 2023.<\/p>\n
It required even longer for units, around 17.8 years.<\/p>\n
It’s taken just 6.8 years for house prices to increase twofold in Tasmania’s capital city and 7.8 years for units.<\/p>\n
In Sydney, it was 9.6 years and 17.3 years.<\/p>\n
House values in some regional areas grew to twice their previous worth in less than 10 years, including regional Tasmania, Victoria and NSW.<\/p>\n
PropTrack director economic research Cameron Kusher said the findings showed few markets were observing doubling values even after the big upswing at the beginning of the pandemic.<\/p>\n
“This highlights that as the cost of housing has increased, the percentage gains in prices have reduced,” he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Kusher said sluggish wage growth was keeping a lid on prices, especially when compared to earlier decades when women entered the workforce in large numbers and made dual incomes more common.<\/p>\n
He also said macroprudential policies, such as serviceability buffers, have also tightened up access to finance in recent years and kept price growth contained.<\/p>\n
“Rising interest rates and much higher prices, along with other economic and demographic factors, will weigh on the prospects of prices doubling in the future,\u201d Mr Kusher said.<\/p>\n