Value of Australia’s housing market approaches an eye-watering $12 trillion – realestate.com.au

Skyrocketing property prices across the country have driven the total value of Australia’s housing market to a record $11.9 trillion.

New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics has shown that the value of Australia’s 11.41 million homes rose 2.7% in the September quarter, to $317 billion higher than three months earlier.

More than 53,000 new homes were added this quarter.

ABS head of finance and statistics Mish Tan said house prices rose across all states and territories, with the average price of homes rising by $23,000 to $1,045,400.

“Queensland is the second state after New South Wales with a median house price of over $1 million, following an increase of 3.5% or $33,900 in the September 2025 quarter,” Ms Tan said.

According to the ABS, the biggest increases were seen in Western Australia (4.5% or $40,800), Queensland (3.5% or $33,900) and the Northern Territory (5.3% or $28,400).

The value of the housing market is about four times that of the Australian stock market, which has a total market capitalization of about $3 trillion.

It is worth almost double the world’s largest company, Nvidia, which has a market capitalization of about $6.7 trillion ($4.4 trillion).

House prices have continued to rise to new record highs across the country in the months since September.

The ABS figures come a day after the latest PropTrack Home Price Index showed national house prices rose 0.5% in November and are now 8.7% higher than a year ago.

PropTrack senior economist Eleanor Creagh said lower interest rates, greater borrowing capacity and a recovery in sentiment have supported this year’s reacceleration.

While higher-than-expected inflation has dampened expectations for further rate cuts this cycle, Ms Creagh noted that several factors will continue to support house price growth in the coming months.

“Population inflows, an increase in investor activity and the expanded Home Guarantee Scheme have strengthened demand, in addition to this year’s series of interest rate cuts,” she said.

“Furthermore, the Federal Government’s Low Deposit Equity Program will be open for applications from Friday, December 5.

“At the same time, overall inventory in the market has been tight and the supply of new homes remains limited, tilting conditions towards sellers.

“These factors point to further price increases throughout the summer.”

ANZ on Tuesday became the latest major bank to scrap its forecasts for another rate cut in 2026, citing recent inflationary pressures.

Melbourne house prices returned to a record high last month after rising above their previous peak of 2022. Image: realestate.com.au

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“With today’s forecast change – which removes the latest easing by 25bp – we now expect the cash rate to remain at 3.60% for an extended period,” said Adam Boyton, head of Australian economics at ANZ.

Ms Creagh noted that the 0.5% rise in property prices last month was slightly weaker than the 0.6% rise in October, with expected affordability expected to limit the pace of price growth next year.

“Monthly growth has weakened in capitals following October’s stronger pace, and with interest rates expected to remain unchanged for an extended period, affordability constraints are likely to result in subdued price growth in 2026,” she said.

“National annual growth is slightly above the average of the past decade, and is not a repeat of the 20-30% increases of previous economic growth.”

PropTrack data shows that housing affordability is still at its worst level ever, despite a slight improvement this year.