This section provides analysis on the performance of the Northern Territory's (NT) residential housing market, including property prices and rents by region, housing affordability and finance commitments, and building activity and approvals.
Key facts | Greater Darwin | Alice Springs | Katherine | Tennant Creek | Housing finance commitments | Affordability | Dwelling supply | Explanatory notes
Key facts
Greater Darwin
In the December quarter 2025 the:
- median price of houses and units sold was $670,000 and $440,000, respectively.
- median weekly house rents increased by 4.3% to $711 per week and increased by 13.8% over the year.
- median weekly unit rents increased by 0.5% to $560 per week and by 11.8% over the year.
- number of houses sold increased by 16.4% to 709 over the year.
- number of units sold increased by 45.6% to 549 over the year.
- Darwin rental yield for houses declined by 0.4 ppt to 5.5% over the year.
- Palmerston rental yield for houses declined by 0.7 ppt 5.1% over the year.
Alice Springs
In the December quarter 2025 the:
- median price of houses and units sold was $468,500 and $285,000, respectively.
- median weekly house rents increased by 5.5% to $623 and increased by 9.2% over the year.
- median weekly unit rents increased by 3.3% to $465 and by 6.9% over the year.
- number of houses sold increased by 38.9% to 100 over the year.
- number of units sold increased by 27.3% to 70 over the year.
- rental yield for houses increased by 1.1 ppt to 6.9% and increased by 1.0 ppt over the year.
Katherine
In the December quarter 2025 the:
- median price of houses sold was $390,000.
- the number of houses and units sold was 35 and 1, respectively.
- median house rents increased by 2.0% to $510 and by 8.5% over the year.
- median unit rents increased by 21.6% to $450 and by 13.9% over the year.
Caution should be used when interpreting quarterly movements for Katherine, as the small size of these markets and low number of sales can lead to volatile results.
Tennant Creek
In the December quarter 2025:
- the median price of houses sold was $275,000
- there were 10 houses sold
Data is highly volatile due to the lower sales volume as there are only a small number of properties on the market. Consequently, the Real Estate Institute of the Northern Territory does not report sales, rental prices or vacancy rates for units in Tennant Creek.
Housing finance commitments
In the December quarter 2025 the:
- trend number of housing commitments (excluding refinancing) increased by 10.0% to 617 over the year.
- trend value of total housing commitments for owner occupation (excluding refinancing) increased by 5.8% to $313 million in the quarter and increased by 18.0% over the year.
For the latest data and analysis about housing finance commitments in the NT, see the Department of Treasury and Finance’s Housing finance for owner occupation economic brief.
Affordability
In the September quarter 2025:
- housing affordability in the NT improved.
- the proportion of family income required to meet loan repayments declined from 33.3% in the June quarter 2025 to 32%, as the average monthly loan repayment declined by 2.7% to $3,720 while the median weekly family income increased by 1.3% to $2,686.
- NT recorded the second lowest proportion of income required to meet loan repayments of all jurisdictions.
- the proportion of median weekly family income required to meet median rent increased by 0.2 ppt to 25.4%.
- NT recorded the sixth most affordable rent of all jurisdictions.
Dwelling supply
For the latest data and analysis about building approvals and building completions in the NT, see the Department of Treasury and Finance’s economic brief Building approvals and Building activity and the Construction industry page.
Explanatory notes
NT median house and unit prices and rents are sourced from the Real Estate Institute of the Northern Territory (REINT). REINT groups the regions of Darwin and Palmerston together as Greater Darwin. Darwin is further broken down into zones that cover the following suburbs:
- Inner Darwin: Bayview, Cullen Bay, Darwin City, East Point, Eaton, Fannie Bay, Larrakeyah, Ludmilla, Parap, RAAF Base Darwin, Stuart Park, The Gardens, The Narrows, Tipperary Waters and Woolner
- Darwin North Coastal: Alawa, Brinkin, Casuarina, Coconut Grove, Jingili, Lyons, Milner, Moil, Muirhead, Nakara, Nightcliff, Rapid Creek, Tiwi, Wagaman and Wanguri
- Darwin North East: Berrimah, Marrara and Winnellie
- Darwin East: Coonwarra and Darwin Airport
- Darwin North: Anula, Bagot, Buffalo Creek, Charles Darwin University, Holmes, Karama, Leanyer, Lee Point, Malak, Northlakes, Sanderson, Woodleigh Gardens and Wulagi
- Caution needs to be used when interpreting quarterly movements for regional markets such as Alice Springs, Katherine and Tennant Creek. The small size of these markets and low number of sales can lead to volatile results.
The median house and unit prices, and rents for the capital cities are sourced from Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA), which receives data from state and territory Real Estate Institutes. REIA adopts the ABS definitions of ‘houses’ and ‘other dwellings.’ A ‘house is a single self-contained place of residence detached from other buildings. An ‘other dwelling’ is a single self-contained place of residence other than a house such as flats, home units, town houses and terrace houses. However for Sydney the definition of ‘houses’ includes houses, cottages, terraces, semi-detached dwellings, townhouses and villas, and ‘units’ include units, studios and duplexes.
REIA’s weighted average median prices are derived from the quarterly median prices for all capital cities weighted according to the number of houses and other dwellings for each corresponding city. These numbers are sourced from the ABS 2011 and 2016 Census.
REIA’s housing affordability data is based on data from lending institutes and the ABS. They define median weekly family income as income from married couples with or without dependent children.
The ABS publication of housing finance commitments are derived from returns submitted to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and covers housing finance commitments statistics from banks and permanent building societies.