Aussie suburbs to avoid where a surprising number of homes sell at a loss

Almost four in ten sellers in one Australian suburb lost money when they sold their home despite a double-digit surge in property values across the country.

While most Aussies make money when they sell, home owners in central Melbourne have found themselves out of pocket.

Apartment owners in the City of Melbourne were the hardest hit in Australia, with 38.9 per cent of homes there selling for a loss of $54,500 on average, new CoreLogic data revealed.

Across the rest of the country, just one in 16 homes sold for a loss, the data revealed, with houses in capital cities nationwide rising by 10.6 per cent.

But in Port Melbourne – next to the Docklands developments – median house prices fell by 0.1 per cent in the year to March to $1.67million. Apartment values in the same suburb plunged 1.3 per cent to $798,563.

However they were the exceptions in the latest CoreLogic Pain and Gain report which showed that overall almost 95 per cent of homes sold for a profit – the highest level since July 2010.

Home owners typically sold up for a profit eight years and 10 months after initially moving in, with houses going up in value more than units.

‘Despite the fact that house values tend to have greater price falls during downswings, they also generally have larger upswings in value,’ CoreLogic said.

‘Houses have always maintained a premium because of the value of land, and development opportunity, as well as a relatively high volume of units being constructed through the 2010s.’

But it was a different story in the City of Darwin where a third of homes sold at loss – with owners typically losing $70,000 on what they originally paid for the property.

Across Australia, 94.3 per cent of homes sold for a profit (pictured is a Sydney house)

In Larrakeyah, unit values fell by 1.6 per cent during the past year to $447,117. 

House values in the Darwin suburb of Wulagi fell by 0.9 per cent to $532,677 – even lower than Darwin’s median price of $584,538, making it the most affordable city in the country.

In Sydney, Parramatta was also a poor performer with more than a quarter of homes in this council area selling at a loss, with the typical seller losing $49,750.

Houses in the City of Parramatta area managed to keep their value during the past year but south-west Sydney had suburbs where prices went backwards.

At Austral, they declined by 1.8 per cent to $920,159, putting it further below greater Sydney’s median house price of $1.4million, but just one in eight homes in the Liverpool council area sold at a loss.