Inner North Property Market Update 2nd Half of 2020

In Q3 2020, the Inner North recorded a median house price of $1,055,000, and a median unit price of $483,450. This represents annual (Q3 2019 – Q3 2020) median price growth of 21.0% for houses and a softening of -19.4% for units. Between Q3 2019 – Q3 2020 property sales increased, by 40.3% for houses (to 101 sales) and by 36.2% for units (to 271 sales). Strong median price growth and increased sales suggest a growing market, particularly for houses, in contrast to COVID-19 predictions. Now is an ideal time to both buy and sell houses in the Inner North.

Average vendor discounts between Q3 2019 and Q3 2020 have swung to a premium of 0.9% for houses and tightened to -0.6% for units. House market conditions in the Inner North have shifted to favour sellers, where buyers are willing to offer above list price.

In September 2020, the average house rental yield in the Inner North was recorded at 4.7%. In the 12 months to Q3 2020, the median house rental price has increased to $620 per week, while average days on the market declined by -16.0% (to 21 days). Overall, this suggests the Inner North has proven to have a resilient rental market throughout COVID-19.

4+ bedroom houses have provided investors with +0.7% rental growth annually, with a median rent of $680 per week.

Also in September 2020, the Inner North recorded an extremely low vacancy rate of just 0.8%, below that of Canberra Metro (0.9%) and well below Sydney Metro (3.5%). Vacancy rates in the Inner North has declined since the height of COVID-19 in March 2020, while also remaining well below the Real Estate Institute of Australia’s healthy benchmark of 3.0% throughout this period. This confirms there is strong rental demand, which is good news for investors.