Across the country, property resellers earned $20.6bn in profit by putting their homes and apartments on the market during the March quarter.
CoreLogic’s most recent
Pain & Gain report examined resales during this time period and found that 90.4% of those who resold their property earned a profit – with the median profit sitting at $185,000.
In contrast, there was $493.8m worth of losses during the March quarter with the average median loss at $35,000 per resale.
The report compared the most recent sale price to the previous sale price to determine the ultimate gross profit or loss.
Looking at each capital city, the total proportion of houses and apartments sold at a profit were as follows during the March quarter:
- Sydney (97.8%)
- Hobart (95.4%)
- Melbourne (95.3%)
- Adelaide (92.5%)
- Brisbane (90.8%)
- Canberra (90.4%)
- Perth (76.8%)
- Darwin (63.0%)
The top resellers in regional areas of Australia include the Southern Highlands and Shoalhaven (98.8%), Illawarra (98.6%), Newcastle and Lake Macquarie (98.2%) and Geelong (97.3%).
Regional losses mostly came from areas linked to mining and resources with 11.1% of houses sold for less than their original purchasing price in these locations. This was marginally higher than the 11.0% recorded in the December 2016 quarter and the 10.9% recorded in March 2016.
“There is still a relatively high proportion of units in regional Australia reselling at a loss (17.2%). However, the proportion of loss making unit sales has shifted substantially lower as lifestyle markets see buyer demand rebounding and mining regions approach the bottom of their cycle,” said CoreLogic report author
Cameron Kusher.
At the end of last year, 17.9% of regional units had resold at a loss while in March 2016 this was higher at 19.7%. The 17.2% recorded in the March quarter this year was the lowest since the 2010 December quarter.
“While the proportion of loss making sales has started to reduce in some of these regions, there remains a high willingness from home owners to sell up coupled with little demand to purchase. As a result we are seeing a high proportion of vendors materialising their losses,” Kusher said.
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