Date: 05 December 2019

Melbourne’s median house price is likely to reach a new record high in 2020. Indeed, NAB’s latest Residential Property Survey has also just predicted a house price rise of 7.4 percent across 2020. But this is their guess, and we’ll have to wait and see.

Supporting these predictions is powerful population growth, with more than 100,000 new residents in Melbourne each year – all needing a home. Based on the current growth rate, Melbourne is set to overtake Sydney as the nation’s most populous city by 2026. All this indicates a stable local market, so it’s a good time to buy and a good time to sell so that plans can be made with some surety. However, caution suggests that the current growth boom could be a short-term.

The RBA cuts have put a rocket under house prices however as it stands they have failed to move the dial on unemployment (currently sitting at 5.3 percent), wage growth or retail sales. Government regulators are likely to apply the brakes again if the market rises too quickly and household debt levels look stretched.