Sydney apartment insights: What happened to Sydney apartment prices over October?

Sydney apartments values continued their strength over October, posting 1.2 per cent gains over the month to now be 14.5 per cent over the calendar year, according to the monthly Hedonic Home Value Index by CoreLogic.

The gains follow 1.4 per cent growth in August and 1.6 per cent in both June and July.

Over 2020, values were down -0.2 per cent.

The median has now jumped over $100,000 since the start of the year, when the median apartment value was $733,000. Now it's $837,000.

CoreLogic's research director Tim Lawless believes Sydney will see the highest trend toward high density living compared to the other capitals, as the gap between the median apartment value and median house value rises to over $500,000. (Sydney's median house value is now $1.33 million, up 1.6 per cent over October).

“As housing becomes less affordable, we expect to see more demand deflected towards the higher density sectors of the market," CoreLogic's research director, Tim Lawless, said. 

"House prices continue to outpace wages by a ratio of around 12:1," Lawless noted.

"This is one of the reasons why first home buyers are becoming a progressively smaller component of housing demand.

"With investors becoming a larger component of new housing finance, we may see more demand flowing into medium to high density properties," Lawless added.

"Investor demand across the unit sector could be bolstered as overseas borders open, which is likely to have a positive impact on rental demand, especially across inner city unit precincts.”

Sydney has seen the largest rise in rents over the last three months, up 2.4 per cent, followed by Brisbane, regional Queensland and regional New South Wales (all up 2.3 per cent).