Prices have more than doubled in some parts of Australia due to rock-bottom interest rates, government incentives, interstate migration and historical levels of demand from buyers over the past few years.
In Australian dollar terms, buying a home is now hundreds of thousands more expensive than it was at the same time last year. This price difference has become more pronounced over the past five years.
Property prices in most Australian suburbs or towns are significantly more expensive than they were in 2017.
Some areas, such as Sunshine Beach in Noosa in Queensland and the alpine town of Jindabyne in NSW, saw house prices rise by almost 200 per cent over the period.
Elsewhere, Teneriffe in Brisbane, Anglesea in Geelong and Palm Beach in Sydney’s northern beaches saw prices more than double.
But there are always exceptions, even during the housing boom.
Analysis of Domain’s data found some suburbs in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, the ACT, the Northern Territory and Western Australia are actually cheaper now than they were in 2017 – and in some cases significantly lower than in 2017.
Only South Australia and Tasmania did not have a single suburb where house prices fell over the past five years.
In the ACT, there are only two suburbs where house prices are lower than they were five years ago: Bruce in the Belconnen region and the Canberra CBD, but only for apartments, not houses.
Apartments in Bruce are now 9.3 per cent cheaper and apartments in the Canberra CBD are 3.2 per cent cheaper.
There were also two suburbs in the Northern Territory where prices were lower than in 2017. Apartment prices in central Darwin are now 19.9 per cent lower, with a median price of $432,5000, while in Humpty Doo, a commuter town about 40 minutes south of Darwin, a house is down 3.8 per cent to $565,000 .
Domain director of research and economics Nicola Powell said the opportunity to buy at a price higher than it was in 2017 was real, but buyers were advised to do their homework before buying.