Australia’s housing markets ended 2021 with a bang, with Brisbane and Adelaide showing no signs of slowing down as values continue to reach new highs.

CoreLogic’s latest Hedonic Home Value Index showed a 1% monthly and 22.1% annual gains in dwelling values across Australia.

While the overall monthly gains have continued to moderate from the highs achieved earlier in the year, Brisbane, Adelaide, and regional Queensland are the only broad regions where there is no evidence of value growth slowing just yet.

Dwelling values increased by 2.9% in Brisbane and 2.6% in Adelaide, significantly higher than the gains achieved in Sydney at 0.3%.

CoreLogic’s research director Tim Lawless said these cities show less of an affordability challenge relative to their larger counterparts and possess favourable conditions, with Queensland benefitting from strong interstate migration.

“Additionally, we haven’t seen the same level of supply response seen in other regions, with the trend in advertised supply remaining well below average in these markets,” he said.

Sydney and Melbourne reported a slowdown over the last month of 2021, with the latter even posting the only monthly decline in house prices at 0.1%.

These two cities reported their softest monthly reading since October 2020.

“A surge in freshly advertised listings through December has been a key factor in taking some heat out of the Melbourne and Sydney housing markets, along with some demand headwinds caused by significant affordability constraints and negative interstate migration,” Mr Lawless said.

Overall, the 0.6% combined monthly growth across capital cities pales in comparison to the 2.2% gain recorded in regional areas.

Regional housing values seemed to have picked up pace again, with regional Queensland rising as a clear standout as prices in the region rose by 2.4%.

Over the year, however, the strongest regional markets were New South Wales and Tasmania, which both registered nearly 30% gains.

The most popular regional markets have seen housing values rise more than 30% over the calendar year, with the Southern Highlands and Shoalhaven recording the highest annual rise in home values at 37.7%, followed by Queensland’s Sunshine Coast at 33.7%.

“It is likely regional markets, especially those with lifestyle appeal, will continue to benefit from higher demand as remote working policies are more normalised, and demand for holiday homes remains strong amid continued international border restrictions,” Mr Lawless said.

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Photo by @tomchill on Unsplash.