95% of Aussie homes resold at a profit

New data from Cotality, formerly CoreLogic, shows that just under 95% of Australians who sold a home in the first three months of this year made a profit, raking in a median gain of $305,000.

While the median profit on resales was down slightly from $310,000 in the December quarter of 2024, Cotality says it expects the profitability of residential real estate to rise further, following interest rate cuts in February and May by the Reserve Bank of Australia, which have reignited demand in the property market.

The details

Cotality’s latest quarterly “Pain & Gain” report says the portion of profit-making sales nationally in Australia in the March quarter of 2025 was 94.9%.

This was steady with the result recorded in the previous quarter.

Brisbane was the top city for profit-making, with almost all resales making a nominal gain (99.7%), while Melbourne (88.7%) and Darwin (73.8%) saw profit-making sales rates of less than 90%.

The report, which analysed 86,000 resales over the period, found there was a slight drop in the median nominal gain, which fell from $310,000 to $305,000.

Cotality says this marks the first financial quarter since March 2023 that median nominal gains fell from the previous quarter.

Gross resale profits in the March quarter are estimated to be $31.7 billion, down from $36.6 billion in the December quarter of 2024.

Cotality’s Head of Research, Eliza Owen, says the results reflect what she calls “a housing market in transition.”

Ms Owen is expecting profitability to rise further following RBA rate cuts in February and May this year, which have reignited demand in the property market and lifted housing values by 1.3% in the three months to May.

“Although profitability held steady in early 2025, we’re seeing clear signs of renewed momentum.

“With rate reductions now flowing through to buyer demand and value growth, we expect stronger resale returns in the months ahead,” Ms Owen says.

“Profit-making resales closely followed home value trends, with profitability dipping slightly as prices softened late last year.

“But that pullback has already reversed.”

Of the 5.1% of home sales that made a loss in the three months to the end of March, the median loss was $44,000, down from $45,000 in the previous quarter.

Property Type

Cotality found house resales continued to outperform units in the March quarter of 2025, with 97.2% of house sales proving profitable, compared to 90.1% for units.

The median resale gain for houses was $355,000 - 73% higher than the $205,000 for units.

Units made up a disproportionately large share of the 5.1% of properties sold at a loss, accounting for just under two-thirds of all loss-making sales.

Eliza Owen says this could be attributed to a number of unit markets being weighed down by oversupply and weak growth.

“Several large apartment markets that saw a building boom in the late 2010s have yet to recover materially,” she says.

Notably, more than one in four unit resales that made a loss occurred in just four Local Government Areas: Melbourne, Port Phillip and Stonnington in Victoria and Parramatta in New South Wales.

Cotality says nominal unit values have grown by just 2.0% on average in these LGAs over the past decade.

Hold periods

Cotality says the median hold period for resales was 8.8 years, consistent with what it says is a long-term trend towards Australians holding property for extended periods.

However, the “Pain and Gain” report found there was a small increase in short-term resales, with properties held for two to four years making up the largest share at 15.6% of transactions.

“These short-term sales may reflect fixed-term borrowers exiting during a rising interest rate environment,” Eliza Owen says.

“This cohort had a higher rate of loss, which is unsurprising given the market downturn that followed rate hikes from 2022.”

Regional strength

Cotality says regional markets outperformed the capitals in the March 2025 quarter, with 96.5% of resales yielding a profit - compared to 93.9% in capital cities.

The data analytics firm says this regional strength is underpinned by long-term capital growth and strong pandemic-era demand, with so-called “lifestyle markets” recording some of the nation’s most significant profit uplifts over the past five years.

“The outsized gains reflect not just price growth, but the enduring appeal of lifestyle locations through and beyond the pandemic,” Cotality’s Head of Research, Eliza Owen, says.

In Noosa (Queensland), the Sunshine Coast (Queensland) and Busselton (WA), resale profits exceeded $400,000 in the March quarter – up substantially from 2020.