More than 10 per cent of apartments transacted in the ACT in the first three months of the year sold for less than they were bought for, according to Cotality's latest Pain and Gain report. In the house market, that number is just 2.4 per cent.
However upsizing apartment owners could be saving money despite new data suggesting many are still selling at a loss, one real estate agent has said.
Jason Anasson from Goodhaus Property said many home owners who bought apartments during the COVID-19 property boom were now struggling to sell them at a profit, but that a weakened market could be of benefit if they were selling to buy a bigger family home.
"Some people just get caught up going, 'Well this is my purchase price so I need to achieve that price again'," Mr Anasson said.
"I'd much rather transact when the market is weaker or depressed than when it's booming.
"You get another $20,000, $30,000 $40,000 for yours [when the market is booming], but you're going to pay another $80,000 to $100,000 for the upsize.
"Whereas if you buy now, you might get $20,000 to $30,000 less, but you might save $50,000 to $60,000 - maybe more - on the purchase."
Both houses and apartments in the ACT dropped slightly in value in May, according to Cotality. It was the first time in a year houses had gone down in value, but followed a months-long trend for apartments.
Cotality head of research Gerard Burg stressed the conditions in Sydney and Melbourne were "much more serious".
The 10.2 per cent of apartment owners who sold for a loss in the ACT lost a median $23,000 on the sales, according to the report. That's compared to a median loss of $40,000 for more than 19 per cent of apartment owners in Melbourne.
"The relative performance and particularly the size of that loss is pretty modest," Mr Burg said.
Both the federal and territory governments made significant changes to housing policy in this year's budgets, but Mr Burg said that was only "one layer" of the story of the property market.
"What I've been likening it to at the moment is an onion, because there's lots of layers to it," he said.
"Everybody's been focused on the budget, but that's just one layer of it."
The three consecutive rate rises at the start of the year would have had the biggest impact on the house prices, Mr Burg said, as the "hit to the hip pocket" had affected buyer sentiment.
The ACT's stamp duty concession, which will now be available to all first home buyers regardless of income, would change individual decision-making processes, but would overall have little effect on declining buyer-side demand, he said.
Mr Burg said the latest figures showed the importance of home owners holding onto their assets for long enough to make a profit.
Holding property for a longer time allowed home owners to "smooth the ups and downs of those cycles and guide you to the path of more profitability", rather than exposing them to an individual property cycle, Mr Burg said.
Apartments that sold for a loss in the ACT were held for a median 3.7 years. The median hold time for an apartment which sold for a profit was 8.5 years.
However, Mr Anasson warned first home buyers against the idea that their first home would automatically make a good investment property.
He said it may be better value for money to sell now at a loss, than invest large amounts in holding the property to sell it later at a higher price.
"It really depends on what you want to get out of the investment. Are you looking for capital growth? Are you looking for a strong rental yield, tax depreciation, things like that?" he said.
