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 | Capital city comparison | Housing finance commitments | Affordability | Dwelling supply | Explanatory notes
Key facts
Greater Darwin
In the September quarter 2024 the:
- median price of houses and units sold was $561,000 and $373,000, respectively.
- median weekly house rents increased by 1.9% to $646 per week, and increased by 14.9% over the year.
- median weekly unit rents increased by 1.5% to $503 per week, and increased by 3.7% over the year.
- number of houses sold increased by 29.3% to 375 over the year.
- number of units sold increased by 19.0% over the year.
- Darwin rental yield for houses increased by 1.0 ppt to 6.0% over the year.
- Palmerston rental yield for houses increased by 0.2 ppt to 5.6% over the year.
- Darwin vacancy rate for all dwellings decline by 1.3 ppt to 3.7% in the quarter, reflecting a 1.3 ppt decline to 3.7% for houses and a 0.3 ppt decline to 3.6% for units.
- Palmerston vacancy rates for all dwellings was unchanged at 3.0%.
Alice Springs
In the September quarter 2024 the:
- median price of houses and units sold was $440,000 and $312,500, respectively.
- median weekly house rents increased by 5.5% to $580, and increased by 18.4% over the year.
- median weekly unit rents increased by 11.0% to $455, and increased by 8.3% over the year.
- number of houses sold increased by 1.9% to 54 over the year.
- number of units sold increased by 42.9% to 40 over the year.
- rental yield for houses increased by 1.1 ppt to 6.9%, and increased by 2.0 ppt over the year.
- Alice Springs vacancy rate for all dwellings was 3.5%.
Katherine
In the September quarter 2024 the:
- median price of houses sold was $375,000.
- the number of houses and units sold was 14 and 2, respectively.
- median house rents was unchanged at $460, but declined by 1.1% over the year.
- median unit rents declined by 11.8% to $375, and declined by 6.3% over the year.
- Katherine vacancy rate for all dwellings was 3.8%.
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 September quarter 2024:
- the median house price of houses sold was $225,000.
- there were 6 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.
Capital city comparisons
In the September quarter 2024:
- Darwin had the lowest median house price of the capital cities at $561,000
- the eight capital city weighted average median house price was $1,050,370, an increase of 0.2% in the quarter and increase of 6.2% over the year
- Darwin median unit price ($373,000) was the lowest of the capital cities
- the eight capital city weighted average median unit price was $686,459, an increase of 0.9% in the quarter and an increase of 5.5% over the year
- Darwin had the second highest median weekly house rent ($646) and the third lowest median unit rent ($503) of all capital cities.
- Darwin recorded the highest vacancy rate of all capital cities at 4.2%
Darwin’s vacancy rate is susceptible to fluctuations due to the transient nature of the NT’s population.
Housing finance commitments
In September 2024 the:
- number of housing commitments (excluding refinancing) increased by 6.9% in year-ended terms to 186.
- trend value of total housing commitments for owner occupation (excluding refinancing) increased by 0.7% to $73 million in the month, and declined 11.1% in year-ended terms.
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 2024:
- housing affordability in the NT improved.
- the proportion of family income required to meet loan repayments declined from 32.4% in the June quarter 2024 to 31.6%, as the median weekly family income increased by 0.7% to $2,547, and the average monthly loan repayment decreased by 1.7% to $3,488.
- NT recorded the 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 0.3 ppt to 25.4%.
- NT recorded the third least 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.