Oct 15, 2026 · 6 min · 4 segments
Are Australian property prices really crashing? The latest Cotality data reveals a more nuanced picture, with regional markets outperforming capital cities and units holding up better than houses…
Terry RyderHost
The last thing you'll get from mainstream news media is thoughtful and balanced analysis of what's happening with house and unit prices, especially in times of disruption like the current situation.
There have been many strident headlines in recent weeks which claim that property prices are plummeting or nosediving or crashing.
And notwithstanding for interest rate rises and the impact of federal budget, nothing as dramatic as that is actually happening.
To put prices in some kind of perspective, I've analyzed the price report published by Curtality in early October.
It shows that prices are falling to some degree in many jurisdictions across Australia, but certainly not all of them.
And with one or two exceptions, the decline in house and unit prices is actually quite minor.
The data also shows that regional markets are holding up better than the capital cities, that the smaller capital cities are doing better than the big ones, and that units are performing better overall than houses.
So the monthly report shows that in the month of September, that nationally house prices dropped 1.2%, but the combined regions dropped only 0.7%.
House prices rose slightly in some jurisdictions, including in Darwin, regional Western Australia and the regional areas of the Northern Territory.
Nationally in the month of September, unit prices dropped, but less than for houses, falling 0.8% overall, but the decrease was less, 0.6% across the combined regions.
Unit prices continued to rise in some markets, including Darwin, regional South Australia, regional Western Australia and regional Tasmania.
There were very minor decreases in unit prices between 0.1 and 0.3% in Melbourne and in regional Victoria.
The overall situation for the month is that units are holding up a little better than houses and regions better than capital cities, with Darwin as the strongest market overall.
The last thing you'll get from mainstream news media is thoughtful and balanced analysis of what's happening with house and unit prices, especially in times of disruption like the current situation.
There have been many strident headlines in recent weeks which claim that property prices are plummeting or nosediving or crashing.
And notwithstanding for interest rate rises and the impact of federal budget, nothing as dramatic as that is actually happening.
To put prices in some kind of perspective, I've analyzed the price report published by Curtality in early October.
It shows that prices are falling to some degree in many jurisdictions across Australia, but certainly not all of them.
And with one or two exceptions, the decline in house and unit prices is actually quite minor.
The data also shows that regional markets are holding up better than the capital cities, that the smaller capital cities are doing better than the big ones, and that units are performing better overall than houses.
So the monthly report shows that in the month of September, that nationally house prices dropped 1.2%, but the combined regions dropped only 0.7%.
House prices rose slightly in some jurisdictions, including in Darwin, regional Western Australia and the regional areas of the Northern Territory.
Nationally in the month of September, unit prices dropped, but less than for houses, falling 0.8% overall, but the decrease was less, 0.6% across the combined regions.
Unit prices continued to rise in some markets, including Darwin, regional South Australia, regional Western Australia and regional Tasmania.
There were very minor decreases in unit prices between 0.1 and 0.3% in Melbourne and in regional Victoria.
The overall situation for the month is that units are holding up a little better than houses and regions better than capital cities, with Darwin as the strongest market overall.
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