Why Australians are pocketing a record amount when they sell their homes today

Australians are coming out on top when they sell their homes, with property resales reaching a record gain of $285,000, nationally.

The revelation comes in a report that also showed 94.5 per cent of property sales resulted in a gain during the June quarter.

The record number is driven by national housing values hitting fresh record highs each month since November last year, according to CoreLogic’s Head of Research Eliza Owen.

She said sellers were also making their decision on when to sell, rather than being forced to sell resulting in bigger profits.

“Most sales in Australia aren’t forced sales, they’re not triggered by an inability to repay the bank,” she said.

“It means that Australians can use information about their local market to time their sale for when they’re going to get the price they want.”

Money in houses

While both houses and units are bringing in strong returns across the market, those selling houses are making bigger profits.

Houses remained more profitable than units through the June quarter, with a profit-making sales rate of 97.2 per cent nationally, compared to 89.4 per cent in the unit segment.

“Ultimately the change in home values has been much stronger in the house market than across units,” Ms Owen said.

She said the fact that there had been more units coming onto the market over time and that for many Australians apartment living was not as desirable as owning a detached home contributed to the difference.

“The median gain from selling a house was almost twice that of what you get from a unit sale,” she said.

While the profit on houses nationally was $340,000 for units it was $185,000.

However, she said she expected profits on units to rise in coming months

Where the biggest profits are

Brisbane claimed the top spot as Australia’s most profitable market, with a whopping 99.1 per cent of home sales bringing in a profit.

This was followed by Adelaide at 98.7 per cent and Perth at 95.4 per cent.

Ms Owen said the strong result in Brisbane came as prices continue to soar there.

“Since the onset of COVID home values across Brisbane have shot up almost 70 per cent.

“So that means for everyone who has been in the market for a relatively short period of time, even just the past four years, its massively increased their chances of making a gain from selling their property.

“And with home values in Brisbane continuing to rise, there’s not much risk of an increase in loss-making sales anytime soon.”

Sydney and Melbourne down

In contrast, Ms Owen said Sydney and Melbourne have now shifted to become the least profitable of the state capitals.

“After Darwin, Melbourne is the second least profitable city by the portion of sales that made a loss,” she said.

“So that was sitting at 9.5 per cent of sales in the June quarter, or nearly one in 10 sellers making a loss.”

Meanwhile Sydney is the third least profitable city, with 8 per cent of resales in the June quarter coming in at a loss.

“However you still have 92 per cent of sales making a gain and the rate of loss making sales did come down from the June quarter,” she said.

This story was first published on view.com.au as Why Australians are pocketing a record amount when they sell their homes today