Sydney, Melbourne Lead Luxury House Price Growth

Sydney’s luxury residential property prices are tipped to grow by 4 per cent this year, while Melbourne’s high end market could see growth of 3 per cent.

The forecasts form part of Knight Frank’s Prime International Residential Index 100, which also tipped Brisbane, Perth and the Gold Coast as recording growth of up to 2 per cent.

While luxury residential price growth in Australia is highest in Sydney and Melbourne, according to the index, four Australian cities—Sydney, Melbourne, Gold Coast, Brisbane made the top 60 for luxury residential market performance for the past year.

Sydney was Australia’s top ranked city at 27th place with 3.7 per cent annual growth, and Melbourne second ranking at 44th spot at 2.2 per cent growth.

The Gold Coast ranked at 55th spot, 1.8 per cent growth, and Brisbane was ranked number 57 (1.4 per cent). Perth came in at 63 (0.9 per cent).

Knight Frank head of residential research Australia Michelle Ciesielski said both cities of Melbourne and Sydney had performed better than expected over the past 12 months.

“Sydney and Melbourne recorded growth above the global average, and Sydney is leading the five domestic markets with prices underpinned by constrained supply, a resilient stock market and three interest rate cuts in 2019,” Ciesielski said.

The top performing prime residential markets

^{The Prime International Residential Index (PIRI 100) in Knight Frank’s The Wealth Report 2020}

Global view

European and Asian cities dominate the top 10 best performing locations in the international residential index.

The Knight Frank’s index tracks the movement of luxury residential prices in 100 cities and second home markets across the globe spanning between December 2018 and December 2019.

Prime property is generally defined as the top five per cent of each market, by value.

Globally, the 100 locations recorded average price rises of 1.8 per cent, up from 1.3 per cent in 2018.

Ciesielski says this number is down from the 2.8 per cent recorded in 2013.

Related: Sydney, Canberra Most Expensive Rental Markets