September 8, 2026 — 3:55pm
The nation’s homes have lost $34 billion in value in three months as interest rates and the federal government’s overhaul of property taxes started to bite and consumers become increasingly worried about the economic outlook on everything from petrol prices to their job prospects.
After a four-year property price surge that pushed the value of the country’s houses, units and apartments beyond $12.7 trillion, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported on Tuesday that they had slipped by 0.3 per cent through the June quarter.
The drop was concentrated in NSW, where values fell by $92.9 billion to $4.6 trillion, Victoria ($44.3 billion) and the ACT ($1.4 billion). Values rose in every other part of the country, led by Queensland, where they climbed by $49.7 billion, and Western Australia ($34 billion).
Despite the drop, the value of all Australian homes is still $1 trillion, or 8.5 per cent, up on the same period last year. Since the bureau started tracking home values in 2012, they have fallen on just nine occasions.
