Vendors profit from home sales

Most home sales in Australia are still turning a profit for their vendors, new research has revealed.

Around the country, 91.1 per cent of all properties resold in the December quarter went for a price above their previous purchase price.

The quarterly CoreLogic Pain & Gain report shows that 92.3 per cent of houses resold for a gross profit, while 88.2 per cent of all unit resales were at a profit.

Research analyst Cameron Kusher remarked that despite a more moderate growth in values, the proportion of properties resold at a profit has continued to climb.

“Over recent years, value growth for units has substantially under-performed that of houses, so as a result in most regions of the country a higher proportion of houses than units resold for a profit”, Kusher said.

In Melbourne, units were almost 10 times more likely to resell at a loss than houses while in Brisbane units were almost 9 times more likely to resell at a loss than houses. In Canberra units were 7.4 times more likely to resell at a loss than houses.

Profits earned from property resales over this period totalled $17.832 billion. By comparison, the resale losses amounted to just $442 million in realised losses.

The analysis found that the vast majority of the $17.832 billion in profit was generated by Sydney and Melbourne, which accounted for 33.1 per cent and 29.4 per cent of total profits respectively.