A property price monitor has looked for the towns and suburbs that have netted their owners the greatest profit in the June quarter and a lot is being made out of NSW localities being the biggest winners.

Property price monitor Cotality has looked for the towns and suburbs that have netted their owners the greatest profit in the June quarter and a lot is being made out of NSW localities being the biggest winners. Well, to those reporters, who missed a fundamental point, I can only say: “Well, duh!”

Sydney in particular and NSW generally are the most expensive places for property prices. And if the rise in price was even the same percentage, then the profits made in these local government regions would likely be bigger because their starting price is greater before applying the percentage rise. Of course, over three months generally, percentage price movements aren’t all that great.

That little numerical point aside, the story of the biggest winners and losers, profit-wise, from Cotality’s Pain and Gain Report makes for interesting reading.

Here are the facts:
1. Property sellers in the June quarter pocketed $36.6 billion.
2. Six out of the top 10 median gainers were in NSW.
3. Kiama in NSW recorded a median profit of a whopping $758,000!
4. The Kiama sellers had held their properties for 12 years, where the profit upsurge was 120%.
5. The Woollahra local area had a gain of $575,000.
6. The lowest profit region was Queensland’s Longreach gaining only $45,200, followed by WA’s Coolgardie that made $52,500.
7. Interestingly, the Daily Mail says: “Regional Australia again outperformed capital cities, with 62 markets, led by regional South Australia, recording a 100% rate of profit-making sales over five years,” but that’s on a percentage basis, not a dollar profit basis.
8. Again, on a percentage basis, Brisbane led the capital cities with a near-perfect 99.7% profit-making rate and the highest resale gain of $400,000. Adelaide followed with a 99.1% profit rate, and Perth came in at 98%.
9. The Daily Mail reported that “Darwin had the highest rate of loss-making sales (20.6%) followed by Melbourne (10.6%), Sydney (7.7%), Hobart (7.2%) and the ACT (6.7%).”

Trend-wise, there was a rise in loss-making sales but Cotality’s head of research Eliza Owen says this trend is now starting to reverse. Owen said the uptick in loss-making sales in these areas was driven by multiple factors. Those who have sold could have been keen to get out of debt as interest rates fell and as more buyers returned to the market.

Nicola Powell, Domain’s chief of research and economics, said the number of ‘affordable homes’ is shrinking. She says the average time to save a deposit for a home is eight years, up from six years in the early 2000s. And mortgage repayments now take up 54% of household income, a 20-year high.

Powell points out that 68% of 30-34 year olds born between 1947 and 1951 owned their home but that’s down to 50% for today’s 30-34 year olds. And in NSW, it’s only 45%.