It’s no secret Australians love talking about real estate, but new data has revealed some interesting trends emerging in the national conversation.
Analysis of the media’s coverage of property markets over the past year, carried out by monitoring service Streem, has identified the major topics that had us all talking.
“The only thing increasing faster than Australian house prices is probably the level of reporting on house prices in Australia,” Streem spokesman Conal Hanna said.
Of the 1.4 million pieces of new content published in Australia between October 2020 and September 2021, across metropolitan and regional outlets, some 16,000 related to real estate.
“We did see a drop in that conversation during the early stages of the COVID pandemic, but obviously with rapidly rising prices, coverage of property has rocketed up again,” Mr Hanna said.
“Increasing prices mean affordability has become a huge topic once more – and there are a lot of follow-on effects.”
Fixated on rising house prices
In the month of September, there were a total of 1508 pieces of media coverage on the issue of house prices.
While that was down on the May 2021 peak of 1862 stories, it represented a 60% rise on 12 months ago, when house price chatter sparked a more subdued 928 stories.
The surge in interest is perhaps unsurprising when you consider the heat in markets.
According to PropTrack data, combined capital city dwelling prices increased by 20% over the 12 months to September, while regional home prices are up 25% in that period.
The sharpest increase of all has been in Sydney, where the median house price is now 25% higher at $1.2 million. The median unit price is now $760,000, up 5.4%.
“When you have a spike in house prices, that almost inevitably leads to an increased focus on housing affordability, a topic that had really fallen a long way from prominence during the pandemic’s early stages,” Mr Hanna said.
The affordability conversation grows
Media mentions of housing affordability in September were up 141% on the same period a year prior, indicating a rising sense of urgency in the conversation.
It was in March this year that the roar of media coverage became almost deafening, coinciding with the largest monthly increase in national home values in almost three decades.
“The follow-on effects of a conversation about affordability is we end up talking about topics like negative gearing and the amount of housing stock available,” Mr Hanna said.
“Those issues had probably dropped off the radar for a while when the pandemic dominated the conversation.”
Regional communities grapple with affordability
Much has been written and said about the great migration of city dwellers to regional country towns and seaside hideaways.
As a result, prices have increased in a number of areas that perhaps aren’t used to major real estate booms.
“The conversation about affordability did increase the most in the regions,” Mr Hanna said of the 89% lift in non-metropolitan media coverage.
A number of major regional property markets have seen huge growth in their median house prices over the past 12 months.
For example, PropTrack data shows the median house price in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales surged 33%, while the Southern Highlands was up 40%.
“The lockdowns in Sydney and Melbourne, especially in Melbourne, have seen a lot of people migrating to the regions. You’ve had people being able to work from home and keep their metro jobs and metro pay packets but live where they want.
“You’ve seen some pretty big increases in the conversation around how that’s changing smaller communities, creating a bit of a divide between those who can afford the new property prices and those who can’t,” Mr Hanna said.
More chatter about change
With a heightened focus on rising house prices and how this impacts affordability comes a renewed debate on measures to help those who are struggling.
Negative gearing – a political football in recent years – was the property topic that saw the biggest increase in coverage, up 102% in the past six months.
Other hot topics included housing stock levels, up 86%, and capital gains tax, up 64%.
There was only a modest nudge upwards of 8% in mentions of first homebuyers over the same period, indicating that high property prices are having an impact across the board – not just for young first-timers.
But the complex issue of lending reform surged by 134%, coinciding with the beginning of intervention measures by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.
APRA recently took its first steps to address the latest housing boom, changing its serviceability assessment requirements.
Whether there will be a material change in prices as a result is unclear, with Real Estate Institute of New South Wales boss Tim McKibbon unconvinced.
“It’s important to remember that neither vendors nor agents set the price of property – prices are set by purchasers in competition,” Mr McKibbon said.
“Therefore, any factor that limits the ability of buyers to compete, be it restricted access to loans or higher loan serviceability costs, will have an impact on prices.”