Australia’s Luxury Housing Market Slides as High-End Property Values Fall Over 10% in Sydney and Melbourne

Australia’s most expensive homes are continuing to lose value, with premium properties in Sydney and Melbourne recording declines of more than 10 per cent from their market peaks as the housing downturn spreads across the country.

According to the latest housing market data from Cotality, homes in the top 25 per cent of the market have fallen 10.7 per cent below peak levels in Sydney and 10.5 per cent in Melbourne. Despite the declines, these properties still command substantial price tags, with median values sitting at approximately $2.1 million in Sydney and $1.2 million in Melbourne.

The data highlights a growing divide within the property market, with lower-priced homes and apartments proving more resilient than their high-end counterparts. Analysts say affordability pressures and changing buyer sentiment have weighed more heavily on the prestige housing segment.

Cotality Head of Research Gerard Burg noted that the downturn, which initially impacted Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra, has now expanded into other major cities. He said falling home values are increasingly being seen across Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth, indicating that market weakness is no longer confined to Australia’s largest housing markets.

While Sydney and Melbourne have experienced the sharpest cumulative declines, Burg said the downturn in Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth has been more evenly spread across different price brackets, reflecting the fact that those cities entered the correction later.

Property experts also caution against viewing Australia’s prestige property sector as a single national market. Herron Todd White Group CEO Peter Maloney said affluent buyers typically have greater flexibility to delay purchases during periods of uncertainty, while high-end sellers often take longer to adjust their price expectations.

The latest figures suggest that although Australia’s luxury housing sector remains valuable, it is facing increasing pressure as market conditions soften and buyers become more selective. Meanwhile, more affordable housing segments continue to show stronger resilience, underscoring the changing dynamics of the country’s property market.