Contrary to the saying "time in the market beats timing the market", capital gains for property vary massively depending on when you buy and sell, even if you hold for a long time (e.g. 10 years, which is a commonly suggested timeframe for property).
The linked charts show the inflation adjusted annual change in house prices averaged over the previous 10 years (using ABS data from 1986 to 2021).
Nationally, price growth averaged 3.7% PA over this period, but varied from a high of 7.1% if you bought a place in December 1997 and sold in December 2007, to a low of 0.3% PA if you held from March 1989 to March 1999.
The differences are even more stark at a city level. If you owned a house in Perth from December 1996 to December 2006, you made almost 10% PA, but if you bought in March 2010 and sold in March 2020, you lost 2.5% PA. Even cities like Sydney are hugely variable over between 10 year periods - June 2003 to June 2013 returned only 0.5% PA, while March 1994 to March 2004 returned 6.8% PA.
I found these results quite interesting, as I (and I'm sure plenty of property investors) assumed that a 10 years would be typically be long enough to see a reasonable return. In reality, a more realistic timeframe is probably 15-20 years or longer.
The linked charts show the inflation adjusted annual change in house prices averaged over the previous 10 years (using ABS data from 1986 to 2021).
Nationally, price growth averaged 3.7% PA over this period, but varied from a high of 7.1% if you bought a place in December 1997 and sold in December 2007, to a low of 0.3% PA if you held from March 1989 to March 1999.
The differences are even more stark at a city level. If you owned a house in Perth from December 1996 to December 2006, you made almost 10% PA, but if you bought in March 2010 and sold in March 2020, you lost 2.5% PA. Even cities like Sydney are hugely variable over between 10 year periods - June 2003 to June 2013 returned only 0.5% PA, while March 1994 to March 2004 returned 6.8% PA.
I found these results quite interesting, as I (and I'm sure plenty of property investors) assumed that a 10 years would be typically be long enough to see a reasonable return. In reality, a more realistic timeframe is probably 15-20 years or longer.