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Australian homeowners were less inclined to move but were more likely to score a bigger profit when selling their property over the last decade.

Domain’s Tenure and Profit report showed that tenure, which measures the number of years that a property is owned before being resold, increased in significantly over the past 10 years across capital cities and regional markets.

For houses, housing tenure across Australia increased from seven years in 2013 to nine years in 2023. In the unit sector, the hold period went from six years to eight years over the same period.

The table below shows how tenure increased in each market:

Area Houses Units
2023 2022 2018 2013 2023 2022 2018 2013
Sydney 10yrs 9yrs 9yrs 8yrs 8yrs 8yrs 6yrs 6yrs
Melbourne 9yrs 9yrs 9yrs 8yrs 9yrs 9yrs 8yrs 8yrs
Brisbane 9yrs 9yrs 9yrs 8yrs 7yrs 7yrs 8yrs 6yrs
Adelaide 9yrs 9yrs 8yrs 7yrs 8yrs 8yrs 9yrs 7yrs
Perth 10yrs 9yrs 9yrs 7yrs 9yrs 9yrs 10yrs 7yrs
Canberra 10yrs 10yrs 9yrs 8yrs 6yrs 7yrs 8yrs 6yrs
Hobart 7yrs 7yrs 7yrs 6yrs 7yrs 6yrs 7yrs 5yrs
Darwin 12yrs 12yrs 11yrs 7yrs 11yrs 11yrs 11yrs 6yrs
Reg NSW 8yrs 8yrs 8yrs 7yrs 7yrs 7yrs 7yrs 7yrs
Reg Vic 8yrs 8yrs 8yrs 8yrs 11yrs 11yrs 10yrs 9yrs
Reg Qld 9yrs 10yrs 9yrs 7yrs 7yrs 7yrs 8yrs 7yrs
Reg SA 9yrs 10yrs 9yrs 7yrs 9yrs 10yrs 9yrs 7yrs
Reg WA 10yrs 10yrs 10yrs 7yrs 10yrs 9yrs 8yrs 7yrs
Reg Tas 6yrs 7yrs 7yrs 5yrs 6yrs 6yrs 8yrs 5yrs
Reg NT 13yrs 12yrs 11yrs 7yrs 10yrs 10yrs 9yrs 6yrs
Australia 9yrs 9yrs 9yrs 7yrs 8yrs 8yrs 8yrs 6yrs
Table Source: Domain

Domain chief of research and economics Dr Nicola Powell said the increasing tenure reflects the reality of significantly stretched and highly leveraged household budgets.

“Furthermore, when you consider the transactional costs associated with buying and selling a home, such as conveyancing and stamp duty, it's no surprise that people are becoming more cautious, even if their current property doesn't fully meet their lifestyle needs,” she said.

Dr Powell said a concerning trend is also emerging, where more homes are falling into higher stamp duty rate categories — this contributes to the misallocation of housing state.

Around 65% of homes owned outright have two or more spare bedrooms, compared to 22% of privately rented dwellings.

On top of this roughly 640,000 Australians are living in housing stress.

“This mismatch exacerbates the ongoing housing affordability crisis and hinders efforts to maximise the efficient use of our housing stock,” Dr Powell said.

The low housing mobility also indicates that there is a lack of suitable housing available. For instance, downsizers are struggling to find homes within the location they are familiar with.

Profit-making resales are increasing

According to the Domain report, while the percentage of profitable property resales experiences some variation over the years, it consistently comprised most resales, historically consistently exceeding 90%.

Currently, 97.8% of houses were resold at a profit, and 91.7% of units achieved the same.

Smaller capital cities like Canberra, Adelaide, and Hobart showed the highest rate of profitable resales.

Area
Profit
Loss
 Change in profit making sales (percentage point)
1yr
5yrs
10yrs
Sydney 95.1% 4.9% -1.7% -3.3% -2.6%
Melbourne 94.6% 5.4% -1.8% -3.0% -2.1%
Brisbane 98.3% 1.7% 0.2% 3.7% 6.3%
Adelaide 99.2% 0.8% 0.2% 3.6% 5.8%
Perth 93.9% 6.1% 0.7% 10.9% -2.9%
Canberra 99.4% 0.6% -0.2% 3.6% 2.5%
Hobart 99.2% 0.8% -0.5% -0.2% 18.8%
Darwin 84.9% 15.1% -3.2% 0.1% -14.2%
Reg NSW 98.9% 1.1% -0.6% 1.0% 6.4%
Reg Vic 99.3% 0.7% -0.5% 1.6% 3.3%
Reg Qld 96.4% 3.6% 0.6% 6.1% 8.5%
Reg SA 97.2% 2.8% 0.5% 9.5% 7.9%
Reg WA 92.5% 7.5% 1.2% 12.9% 3.2%
Reg Tas 99.1% 0.9% -0.5% 6.7% 22.9%
Reg NT 92.8% 7.2% -0.5% 0.7% -4.4%
Australia 96.3% 3.7% -0.3% 2.0% 2.0%
Table source: Domain

In terms of median value, Sydney posted the largest median increase in housing resale profit to $410,000, followed by Canberra at $409,550, and Melbourne ay $327,000.

For units, Hobart reported the biggest increase in median profit at $220,000, followed by regional New South Wales at $192,500.

Dr Powell said property sellers have experienced a substantial increase in value compared to their original purchase price.

“The proportion of profitable resales remains consistently high, a trend expected to continue as Australia's housing market recovers,” she said.

“However, in certain localised areas, the landscape may appear different, as some motivated sellers might be more inclined to accept a loss against the backdrop of rising debt costs.”

Area  Houses Units
2023             2022              2018              2013             2023             2022             2018              2013            
Sydney $410,000 $455,000 $368,500 $142,500 $127,000 $191,000 $245,000 $95,000
Melbourne $327,000 $375,000 $327,600 $186,500 $80,000 $131,000 $150,331 $133,000
Brisbane $315,000 $305,000 $130,000 $102,000 $87,400 $58,000 $17,000 $45,000
Adelaide $235,000 $190,000 $76,500 $79,500 $110,000 $75,000 $44,000 $60,000
Perth $120,000 $95,000 $55,000 $140,000 $36,000 $35,000 $42,000 $114,000
Canberra $409,550 $463,500 $211,000 $181,000 $150,000 $134,500 $45,000 $87,000
Hobart $305,000 $336,250 $112,500 $30,000 $220,000 $250,000 $95,000 $20,000
Darwin $145,000 $175,500 $116,807 $297,500 $0 -$5,000 $0 $142,250
Reg NSW $285,000 $285,000 $138,528 $65,000 $192,500 $195,000 $94,000 $31,550
Reg Vic $239,000 $247,000 $100,000 $78,000 $175,000 $170,000 $76,500 $68,000
Reg Qld $190,750 $172,910 $90,000 $63,500 $159,000 $133,000 $48,000 $0
Reg SA $110,000 $73,000 $24,000 $35,000 $90,000 $57,500 $15,750 $15,000
Reg WA $90,000 $70,000 $10,000 $89,500 $50,000 $45,100 $0 $60,000
Reg Tas $215,000 $215,000 $41,000 $20,000 $143,000 $145,000 $24,500 $7,500
Reg NT $117,500 $100,000 $86,750 $165,000 $37,000 $35,025 $52,500 $120,000
Australia $245,000 $250,000 $160,200 $108,500 $115,000 $123,000 $110,000 $77,500
Table source: Domain

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