Biggest quarterly house price rise in five years: new data

The Bureau of Statistics has released the latest figures on Dwelling Prices.

As was expected, the last three months of 2025 saw a pretty sizeable jump in house and apartment prices off the back of the government’s 5% deposit guarantee.

The average dwelling price rose 2.7% across the country in the December quarter – the biggest quarterly increase for 5 years back to December 2021:

But the real news was in the jump in the median prices of apartments.

In almost every capital city the quarterly increase in apartment prices was well above the long-term average.

In Perth the median price of apartments rose 11.8% in the quarter was the biggest one quarter jump since the mining boom days of 2006. In Brisbane, the 7.2% increase was the biggest since December 2003:

Across the nation the median price for a house in Sydney is now firmly above $1.5m, which in both Brisbane and Canberra the median is above $1m. In Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane and Sydney the median for an apartment is now above $700,000:

These figures highlight yet again that the May Budget desperately needs a change in the capital gains tax and an end to housing policies that just stoke demand, as did the 5% deposit guarantee.

We have called for an end to the Capital Gains Tax Discount, and this data confirms that urgent and significant action is needed.