19 July 2025
Rent Growth Easing Australia’s surging rents appear to have finally hit a peak, with new data showing rents have remained stable for the past 12 months. Despite this, the latest Domain Rental Report reveals that rents throughout much of Australia remain at record highs, except in Darwin. According to the analysis, the pace of growth has cooled in most capital cities in the June quarter. It says that with cost-of-living pressures squeezing budgets, many tenants have reached an affordability ceiling and as a result, landlords are no longer trying to push asking rents higher. The report also says that high rents are driving tenants to find more affordable lodgings, resulting in an increase in demand for rental units. In the June quarter in the house market there was no change in the combined capital city rents but the regional markets increased by 1.8%. In the unit market, capital cities also did not increase but regionals are up by 4%.
Regional Markets That Are Still Firing The heat is yet to come out of Australia’s regional property market, with many still outperforming capital city and suburban markets. Analysis by PropTrack shows that there are 39 suburbs where property values increased by more than 10% in the past three months and the list is dominated by regional markets. Murray Bridge in South Australia takes top spot with an 18% increase in median unit value, followed by Meadowbrook in suburban Logan and Murwillumbah in NSW’s Richmond-Tweed. Other top performers include Chidlow in regional Western Australia and Griffith in the NSW Riverina. Hotspotting identified the strong growth in the Murray Bridge house market some time ago. Managing director, Terry Ryder, says regional South Australia keeps on outperforming on price growth, whether you look at the past five years or the past 12 months. PropTrack’s July Home Price Index shows that Regional South Australia has the strongest annual house price growth of any state or territory in FY2025.
Quote Of The Week “Several cities, including Sydney, Perth, Adelaide and now Darwin, have returned to peak, while others are still making up ground.” Cotality economist, Kaytlin Ezzy
Prices At All-Time High
Top Dollar Sales Rising
Property values have hit all-time highs in almost half of Australia’s suburbs. Cotality data shows that almost 45% of suburbs now have record property values, with Queensland taking the lion's share.
While housing affordability is a struggle for many, there is still a huge market for big-ticket homes throughout Australia. The number of properties that sold for more than $5 million in the past 12 months is on the rise, with 3295 changing hands, up 5.2% from the previous year.
Cotality economist, Kaytlin Ezzy, says the data for the second quarter of 2025 shows how widespread the current growth phase is. It shows that Queensland and Western Australia have the highest proportion of suburbs at record highs - 78.8% and 77.7% of markets, respectively. “Several cities, including Sydney, Perth, Adelaide and now Darwin, have returned to peak, while others are still making up ground,” Ezzy says. Melbourne had only 12.9% of its markets at record highs in June, while Canberra only had eight markets at peak levels and Hobart only had one (Brighton). Ezzy says there are a further 329 markets, which, while not at the previous record high, are still within 0.5% of it. Following a 0.6% increase in national dwelling values in June, Cotality forecasts that more suburbs will climb beyond peak values in the coming months.
This is the second-highest level of $5 million plus years on record, and it wasn’t just the big southern capitals of Sydney and Melbourne chalking up all the big deals, with Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide all achieving record levels of prestige sales. Regional markets are also strong, particularly regional Queensland with 241, $5 million plus sales in the past year. These were particularly concentrated in the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast markets, according to the Westpac Prestige Property Report, 2025. Westpac Chief Economist, Luci Ellis, says Australia’s prestige market reclaimed momentum in 2024. She says compared with five years ago, prestige sales volumes are up by 217%. NSW had 2153, $5 million plus sales, Victoria, 569, Queensland, 380, Western Australia, 159, South Australia, 24, ACT, 9, and Northern Territory, 1. Tasmania did not have any in 2024.
Building Costs High Brisbane is the most expensive place to build in Australia, according to the 2025 Global Construction Market Intelligence report. The report by Turner and Townsend says it now costs $5009 per square metre to build in Brisbane. Project director Tiffany Emmett says Construction costs in Brisbane rose 4.4% in 2024, and are expected to increase a further 5.5% in 2025. She says the Brisbane cost increases are exacerbated by a growing pipeline of major infrastructure projects, including the Cross River Rail, Brisbane Metro, hospital upgrades and new Olympic infrastructure. Sydney is the next most expensive city with average building costs of $4866 per square metre, followed by Perth ($4497), Melbourne ($4242) and Adelaide ($4133). Master Builders Australia says building costs have increased by 40% in Australia in the past five years. Breaking down the cost of construction to different property types, Master Builders says the average cost of construction in Brisbane for a house is about $2500 per square metre and that the average time to build a home has blown out to almost 12 months from 10.3 months. ABS data shows the average build cost of a new house in Australia has risen by almost $100,000 in the past two years.
