What we found
- 1 in 5, resold within three years. Of 497,355 homes sold again one to three years later, 18.5% went for less than the owner paid (sales January 2018 to April 2026).
- 1 in 14, held ten years or more. Of 1,270,919 long held homes, 7.0% sold for less over the same period.
- 1 in 4 in Western Australia. Within three years, 25.4% of Western Australian resales sold for less. In Tasmania it was 11.7%.
- $45,000 less, on one Newcastle street. 37 Douglas Street, Wallsend was bought for $470,000 in January 2019 and sold for $425,000 in July 2020.
Our research: Why some homes sell for less than the owner paid
The story: how often do Australians sell a home for less than they paid?
Microburbs read every Australian home that sold twice between January 2018 and April 2026. That is 3,293,601 resales, each matched to what the same address sold for before. Of those, 360,383 went for less than the owner paid, about 1 in 9.
The year of the sale changes the answer a lot. Of homes resold one to three years later, 1 in 3 sold for less in 2019 and again in 2020. By 2022 it was 1 in 12. In 2024 it was 1 in 7, and in 2025 it was 1 in 9.
When a quick resale does go backwards, the drop is rarely small. The middle case lost $40,000, on a home bought for about $580,000.
Does holding a house for longer protect you?
The longer the owner held, the less often the home sold for less. Held one to three years, 18.5% of 497,355 resales went for less. Held three to five years, 11.9% of 519,715. Held five to ten years, 11.8% of 1,005,612. Held ten years or more, 7.0% of 1,270,919, which is about 1 in 14.
Cheaper homes follow the same shape. Among homes bought for under $800,000, 16.8% of the resales held one to three years sold for less, against 6.3% of those held ten years or more.
This is what happened, not what will happen. It covers sales from January 2018 to April 2026, a period that holds the 2019 and 2020 falls, the 2021 run-up and the 2022 turn.
Which states have the most homes selling for less?
Our reel: every Australian resale on the map, with the ones sold for less in red.
Western Australia is the state the reel names. Of its 54,722 resales held one to three years, 25.4% sold for less, about 1 in 4. The Northern Territory is higher again at 35.8% of 2,440, about 1 in 3.
The eastern states sit close together. New South Wales 19.5% of 128,260, Victoria 18.8% of 110,232, the Australian Capital Territory 20.2% of 9,455. Queensland is 15.7% of 151,643 and South Australia 15.2% of 29,050. Tasmania is the lowest at 11.7% of 11,552.
Across every holding length the order barely moves. The Northern Territory 32.4% and Western Australia 21.6% sit well above Queensland 12.6%, South Australia 9.3%, New South Wales 7.7%, Victoria 7.5% and Tasmania 6.5%.
What happened on Douglas Street, Wallsend?
Douglas Street runs through Wallsend, in Newcastle, New South Wales. It carries 34 resales on record over the period, and the typical one sold for $593,750. Two of the 34 sold for less than the owner paid.
Number 37 is one of them. It was bought for $470,000 on 26 January 2019 and sold for $425,000 on 13 July 2020, eighteen months later and $45,000 down. The same house then sold again on 6 October 2021 for $676,850.
Number 13 is the other end of the street. It was bought for $65,000 on 4 May 1990 and sold for $500,000 on 8 October 2019, after 29 years. Number 15 was bought for $59,750 in April 1997 and sold for $730,000 in May 2023. Number 24 changed hands four times and rose each time, from $420,000 in April 2019 to $900,000 in August 2025.
Wallsend as a whole looks like the country. Of its 1,868 resales, 81 sold for less, about 1 in 23. Narrow it to the homes held under three years and it is 49 of 328, about 1 in 7.
Sold for less means the second price was below the first, on the same address. The file holds resales held a year or more, so the quick group is really one to three years. Costs of buying and selling are not counted, so the real number of owners out of pocket is higher.
How we made this reel
- We matched every sale to the one before it. Each pair is the same address bought and sold again, with both prices.
- Then we grouped them by how long the owner held. One to three years, three to five, five to ten, and ten or more.
- Douglas Street, Wallsend is a real street. Every sale on it comes from the New South Wales sale records.
What it means for you
- The short hold is where the risk sits. The share selling for less falls as the holding period gets longer.
- Check what your own street has done. A suburb report lists the homes bought and sold again, with both prices.
- The costs of buying and selling come on top. Stamp duty and agent fees are not counted in any of these figures.
Where to see it on Microburbs
- Repeat sales, in every suburb report. Open Market and see each home bought and sold again, with both prices.
- Read it street by street. The map puts every resale where it happened, so you can find your own street.
Get the data
The data behind this reel, for any suburb, is live in our API. It lists all 16,060 resales on record in St Kilda, Melbourne, each with what the owner paid, what it sold for and how long they held it. Of the 500 it returns, the typical one grew 4.3% a year and 74 sold for less than the owner paid, read on 12 November 2026.
Try it now, free. This request is free for our sample suburbs and homes, one in each state and territory, with no sign up and no card:
curl "https://api.microburbs.com.au/v1/suburbs/St%20Kilda%20%28Vic.%29/market/repeat-sales" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer test"
What it sent back on 12 November 2026, cut to its first three of 500 resales. Fields with no value for this suburb are left out here:
{
"data": {
"area_name": "St Kilda (Vic.)",
"area_level": "suburb",
"n": 16060,
"n_loss": 0,
"avg_annual_growth_pct": 24.148041216546478,
"points": [
{
"lat": -37.86679138,
"lng": 144.98775258,
"annual_growth_pct": -1.027176022173859,
"gnaf_pid": "GAVIC425681979",
"buy_date": "Apr 2019",
"sell_date": "Oct 2023",
"buy_price": 545000.0,
"sell_price": 520000.0,
"hold_years": 4.5479452054794525
},
{
"lat": -37.86506052,
"lng": 144.98781939,
"annual_growth_pct": 7.580789766746676,
"gnaf_pid": "GAVIC424028527",
"buy_date": "Nov 2021",
"sell_date": "Sep 2023",
"buy_price": 520000.0,
"sell_price": 595000.0,
"hold_years": 1.8438356164383563
},
{
"lat": -37.861056,
"lng": 144.979994,
"annual_growth_pct": 2.2928251281444822,
"gnaf_pid": "GAVIC412371807",
"buy_date": "Nov 2019",
"sell_date": "Sep 2023",
"buy_price": 674000.0,
"sell_price": 735000.0,
"hold_years": 3.8219178082191783
}
]
}
}
See the full API docs for every request, the price of each and how to get a key for the rest of Australia.
See every resale in your own suburb
Every Microburbs suburb report lists the homes bought and sold again, with both prices, street by street.
