More than half of the country’s house and unit suburb markets saw a fall in value in 2022, as the national property downturn became more widespread.

CoreLogic found that 51.7% of the 4,661 house and unit suburbs analysed nationally recorded an annual decline in value in 2022.

The proportion of national house and unit markets recording a quarterly decline in values increased from 76.9% in September to 80.7% in December.

CoreLogic Economist Kaytlin Ezzy said mapping the suburb level data confirmed the extent of the housing market downswing and demonstrated the diversity between capital cities, and houses and units.  

She said fewer than 10% of house and unit markets recorded a decline in value in the December quarter 2021.  

“The market downswing doesn’t discriminate, with only a small proportion of suburban areas riding a wave of positive growth among the sea of declining values,” she said. 

“This has resulted in a reduction in the number of million-dollar suburbs, particularly in our most expensive housing market, Sydney, with the most resilient suburbs found in more affordable areas and within the unit sector. 

“The downswing has meant buyers who were previously priced out of some markets might start to see opportunities appearing, particularly in cities where larger downturns have been recorded such as Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Hobart and Canberra.  

“However, it’s likely much of the benefits of falling values have been offset, with rising interest rates pushing serviceability buffers and mortgage repayments higher.”  

In Sydney, just seven or 1.3% of the 547 house suburbs recorded an increase in values in 2022, with the majority concentrated in the city’s southeast.  

The downswing has seen the number of million-dollar house suburbs decline from 439 in March to 345 in December. 

Annually, Sydney unit values fell 9.2% taking the city’s median unit value to $772,807.  

Melbourne had just six or 1.6% of its 371 house suburbs record a rise in values in the December quarter and all but 2.2% of suburbs record a fall in their annual house value.  

Melbourne unit values were down 5% since a peak in April.  

In Brisbane, the number of suburbs recording an annual house value decline increased from two in September to 160 or 50% in December. 

Selling conditions for Brisbane’s unit market continued to weaken through the December quarter with values falling 1.8%. 

Bucking the trend seen across the other capitals, house values across Perth rose 0.1% over the December quarter, taking values 3.9% higher over the year.