Aussies divided on whether they want house prices to go up or down

Australians are neck-and-neck on whether they want house prices to rise or fall in 2025.

A study by the Australia Institute has found almost as many respondents wished for house prices to decrease (36 per cent) as those who desired for them to increase (33 per cent).

The division in attitudes reflects the complexity of the housing market and appeasing its many varied participants.

As some are yearn for prices to settle at a level that gives them a foot on the ladder, others have pinned their retirement or financial prospects on growth in their portfolio.

Drilling down to the types of respondents, investors were the only cohort with a majority that wanted real estate prices to spike (59 per cent). Of renters, three in five wanted a decline (60 per cent).

Among Aussies who own their homes with a mortgage, 42 per cent was prices to go up, and 45 per cent of those who own outright desire the same.

The institute quizzed 1009 Australians, between November 13 and 15 this year.

One in five (18 per cent) said they were content for prices to remain as they have been, the study found.

Matt Grudnoff, senior economist at the Australia Institute, said in a statement that house prices have cost some dearly.

“As increasing numbers of Australians are locked out of the housing market, it has become so expensive that only a minority of Australians want prices to keep going up,” Grudnoff said.

“Increases in house prices have come at a terrible cost to so many people. Housing should be about having a safe and secure place to live, not a way to make money.”

“Less than half of homeowners want to see house prices rise. Only among those with the most to gain from rising house prices, people who own investment properties, did a majority want to see house prices rise.”

High house price rises have manifested in the Sydney market this year by propelling sales of apartments. A notable number of those listing apartments were investors, Domain’s head of research and economics Dr Nicola Powell says.

More units than houses were purchased in Sydney this year, Domain’s End of Year wrap revealed.

Apartments and units were the most transacted category of property in Sydney in 2024 – as they also were in 2023.

The impact of elevated interest rates and living costs is laid bare in the report, which was launched in December as the nation’s cash rate held firm to end the year at a steady 4.35 per cent.

Units accounted for 45.9 percent of sales in Sydney in 2024, compared to 44.3 per cent sales struck for houses.

Dr Powell says increased investment activity in Sydney has in part driven the popularity of units.

“An element that we also saw was investors selling off, too,” she says. “It could be capturing some of the offloading that we saw.

“And what is this telling us about affordability? Sydney is a global capital city and what we should see is a diverse array of properties and higher density transacting.”