You read the title right: Sydney rents and prices continue to go up.

House prices in Sydney increased by 4.1% over the last quarter and unit prices are also going up by 3.1%. Over the past year, Sydney house prices went up by 19.97% with unit prices going over a sedate rate of 11.56%. Long story short, houses in Sydney will reach the price tag of $1 million within the year.

Andrew Wilson pitches in with news about the mad rush for land in the suburbs. This can mean further elbowing out of the first home buyers. Over the year 2014, Sydney’s median residential land price shot up by 19.7%. This is way ahead of the numbers registered by Melbourne and Brisbane.

New data reveals there’s a big increase in first home buyers, suggesting that the first home buyer ‘problem’ is not as big as anyone thinks it to be. According to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, first home buyers represented 14.5 per cent of the housing finance commitments in December 2014. In December 2013, that share was only recorded at 12.7 per cent.

Property prices continue to rise, as if that’s not something to be worried about. People looking into buying new homes and properties can certainly be worried as prices continue to go upward. Recorded last February, there was a 0.3 per cent gain over the month. The total increase now for the combined dwelling values is now at a recorded 2.5 per cent higher over the rolling quarter and 8.3 per cent over the last 12 months before February this year. Between Sydney and Melbourne, Sydney ranks the highest with a 13.7 per cent higher value than Melbourne’s 7.4 per cent dwelling value. Brisbane, the third largest city, has the third highest.

An article on the website The Adviser reports that more than half of the Australian citizenry is covered by the fast-growing electronic conveyancing network. As January rolled towards a close, Victoria embraced a full-fledged system for online transfer of properties.

Wendy Russell writes a piece for Property Update wherein he shares his views on home ownership and the delicate balance of working around the mortgage chain and enjoying one’s pre-mortgage lifestyle. Russell talks about how our parents could never have thought about feeling burden-free till there was a mortgage routine in sight. Things, however, have changed for the Gen Y.