Australians who sell residential properties are achieving record profits, according to the latest Pain & Gain Report from CoreLogic.

The median profit achieved by Australian vendors was $306,000 in the December quarter of 2024.

That’s the highest nominal gain recorded since the data-set began in the mid-1990s. 

But behind the headline figure lies a more nuanced story—one where detached houses continue to deliver, while units in Sydney and Melbourne are still unwinding the damage of past planning mistakes.

The report analysed 95,300 resales nationally over the quarter, with 95% of sellers booking a profit.

For those 5% of re-sales that didn’t make a profit, the median loss for unprofitable sales rising to $45,000, up from $40,000 in the prior quarter and above the five-year average.

Still, the nominal gains from resale reached a whopping $35.6 billion in the December quarter— a little higher than the quarter before.

As always, the devil is in the detail. Brisbane led the capitals with an astonishing 99.6% of resales achieving a profit. But Melbourne and Darwin lagged, with just 89.2% and 71.7% of sellers turning a gain, respectively.

And the biggest culprit? Units in Sydney and Melbourne. These two cities alone accounted for 60% of all loss-making resales nationally, despite representing only 34% of total sales.

Interestingly, over a third of loss-making sales in Q4 had hold periods of four years or less. One in four were sold within two to four years of purchase. “Short selling times can increase the risk of making a loss,” CoreLogic said—particularly if you’ve bought at the peak of a cycle and been forced to sell before values rebound.

Yes, profits are strong on paper, but not everyone’s winning. Unit investors in oversupplied markets — especially those who bought off-the-plan in the past —are still paying the price for speculative decisions made a decade ago. 

And as always, property rewards the patient. Short hold periods, volatile lending policy, and poor asset selection will often be punished by the market.