When the World Health Organisation declared COVID-19 a global pandemic in March 2020, the world collectively took a sharp inhale – and the housing market?

Well, it hopped on a rollercoaster most people didn’t see coming. Five years later, how did property markets fare? Well, a new report from CoreLogic has unpacked the wild property ride from those fearful early days to today.

According to the report, the early pandemic days felt like a free fall. National housing values dipped by 1.7 per cent as border closures, social distancing, and a general sense of uncertainty had buyers hesitating.

But then came June 2020, and the market found more than just its footing – property prices started rising strongly everywhere around the nation, which was a precedent most had never experienced before.  

In fact, between July 2020 and April 2022, housing values soared by 33.1 per cent. Back then, interest rates had hit record lows, internal migration boomed, and let’s not forget all that emergency fiscal spending boosting confidence.

But then came the interlude, when interest rates skyrocketed, and values temporarily slid by 7.5 per cent. By early 2023, though, median values started to rise again and soared by 14.5 per cent to October 2024. 

Regional vs capital city performance 

Here’s where things get interesting because many regional areas outperformed the capitals, which is not the usual state of play generally speaking.

Since March 2020, regional home values shot up by a staggering 56.3 per cent, outpacing the capital cities significantly. The stars of the show included Byron Bay, Ballina, and Gympie, all skyrocketing by over 70 per cent during the early surge.

In the second growth phase, it wasn’t just the lifestyle regions stealing the show. Rural areas like Rockhampton in Queensland, as well as Western Australia’s coastal gems like Busselton, saw robust growth, according to the CoreLogic research.

During the pandemic, house values also outpaced units by significant margins with a 44.5 per cent increase in values, compared to 20.1 per cent for units. By mid-2022, the price gap between houses and units reached a record-breaking 32 per cent.

However, in recent years, units have staged something of a comeback. As affordability challenges mounted and new multi-unit dwellings became scarce, units began to narrow the gap – especially in urban areas where proximity trumped space.

Top winners and losers

Let’s talk top performers over the past five years, according to the research, with Murray Bridge in South Australia taking the cake, with housing values more than doubling since March 2020.
Kingaroy in Queensland came close behind, with a 95.6 per cent rise. Meanwhile, Mount Isa and Alice Springs saw values decline – proof that even in a booming market, not every region gets its glow-up.

As housing prices surged, rental markets weren’t sitting idly by either. Since March 2020, national rents have risen by a staggering 37.6 per cent, with house rents slightly outpacing units.

The biggest rental growth was in regional areas, particularly Western Australia, where rents grew more than 60 per cent. Perth emerged as a rental hotspot, with median rents jumping by $274 per week – a far cry from its pre-COVID dip.

These sorts of facts and figures make for spectacular reading because the housing market’s journey since COVID has been nothing short of dramatic.

From pandemic-induced panic to soaring values and affordability struggles, it’s clear that no one could have predicted the wide rider that occurred.

So, what’s next? With affordability challenges still at play, interest rates stabilising, and population growth continuing, the market has settled into a new rhythm – with active property buyers set to benefit the most over the years ahead.