<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>340654</docID> <postdate>2025-03-19 10:05:00</postdate> <headline>Home owners reap windfall as buyers warned on new units</headline> <body><p><img class="size-full wp-image-218637" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/houses-e1701641240436.jpg" alt="" width="523" height="349" /></p> <caption>Home sellers notched a record median profit in the last three months of 2024, fresh data shows.</caption> <p><span class="kicker-line">By <b>Rachael Ward</b></span></p> <p><strong>Holding onto a house for ten years is a good way to make a buck, but an apartment off the plan could leave sellers out of pocket.</strong></p> <p>Home owners cashing in made a record median profit of $306,000 in the final three months of 2024, CoreLogic data reveals.</p> <p>That's a record high since the company started recording profits in the mid-1990s, however doesn't take inflation into account.</p> <p>Almost 95 per cent of all sellers made money, with properties held for more than 9.3 years the most likely to make a profit.</p> <p>"Despite mixed market conditions, declining capital growth and lower clearance rates, Australian property continues to deliver strong profitability," CoreLogic's head of research Eliza Owen said.</p> <p>Owners selling houses were more likely to be in the black, with just three per cent of houses sold at a loss.</p> <p>However, more than one in ten units lost money with almost half of those located in Sydney and Melbourne.</p> <p>Ms Owen warned unit owners to brace for more bad news for years to come.</p> <p>"The off-the-plan apartment boom has clearly meant lasting losses for sellers in Sydney and Melbourne," she said.</p> <p>Overall, the most profitable sales were in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.</p> <p>More than one-quarter of Darwin's properties and one-third of those in regional Northern Territory were sold at a loss, making it the most unprofitable place in Australia.</p> <p>Nationally, just over one-quarter of properties that sold at a loss were bought between two and four years prior, when prices were at a record high and before interest rates soared.</p> <p>CoreLogic predicts selling profits will continue to climb if there is another cut to interest rates, expected later in 2025.</p> </body>