House Prices
House prices
Data source: NSW Govt Rent and Sales Report
The latest data shows the median price of housing in the Hunter continuing recent increases, with a 0.26% increase from December 2023 to March 2024 in the Greater Newcastle Area (for the Cessnock, Lake Macquarie, Maitland, Newcastle and Port Stephens, based on the aggregate available in the NSW Govt Rent and Sales Report see regional explanations in the footnotes). All LGAs have maintained significantly higher median prices than pre-COVID, but are still below NSW averages on a value basis. Price increases in the 6 months to March 2024 are evident in Upper Hunter Shire, Muswellbrook, Cessnock, Port Stephens, Lake Macquarie and Newcastle. Singleton saw a large decline, but this is partly due to volatile increases (and a small number of sales) over the last 12 months. Mid-coast, Maitland and Dungog also saw minor declines.
Data source: NSW Govt Rent and Sales Report
Rental prices
For renters, there was hope that a peak in rental prices in mid-2023 may be followed by a stabilisation or decline in prices. However, for most LGAs in the Hunter, there is still a strong upward trend in prices. The data below is for the median weekly rent for 3-bedroom stand-alone houses. It is possible to see the median value by LGA, or the median values by LGA indexed to September 2010 (i.e. showing relative price increases for each LGA before and after September 2010). The latest data from the NSW Govt Rent and Sales Report extends to the first quarter of 2024.
Data source: NSW Govt Rent and Sales Report. Data indexed to start 2009.
In the 6 months to March 2024, all LGAs showed increases or stable rent prices. Muswellbrook had stable prices, whilst Maitland, Singleton, Upper-Hunter, Mid-Coast, Port Stephens, Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Cessnock and all recorded increases in rents. Dungog saw the largest increase, but has a very small rental market and increases offset previous large declines in 2023. In comparison, Greater Sydney had an increase of around 4.7% in the half year to March.
Data source: NSW Govt Rent and Sales Report
House prices to annual rent ratio
The ratio of house prices to annual rent has declined in the last 6 months for most Hunter LGAs and the NSW average, continuing earlier declines first seen in 2022. The decline implies that it is a more attractive time to invest in housing than previous years as rental prices have been increasing faster than house prices during this period. The figure below shows the ratio of house price for a median 3 bedroom house to the rental price. Internationally, a value of 20 is a common baseline, and Australia tracks well above this number (reflecting the relatively high price of housing purchases). The peak in house prices seen above in 2022 is also evident in the peak in the price to rent ratio (implying that the rents did not peak in the same way as house prices).
Data source: NSW Govt Rent and Sales Report
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