Melbourne property is worth less today than 5 years ago

I contantly hear that property can't go down but if I am understanding Corelogic's daily data correctly Melbourne prices have done exactly that.

If you bought in 2018 your house today is worth almost exactly the same as it was then. Once you add inflation over the top, then a $1m house in 2018 is worth much more than a $1m house today.

Every time I post a comment about it I seem to get down voted into oblivion or hit with anacdotal evidence about particular suburb A or B, however the data shows buying property over the past 5 years in Australia's 2nd largest city has likely been a poor investment. Granted, not everyone buys to invest.

​

Corelogic data:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AusFinance/comments/14cy1z7/corelogic_dailies_19062023_colour_updates/

​

EDIT: for everyone saying I'm reading the chart wrong I'm referring to the SECOND chart, the index vs. 2017. Although ironically the first chart (which only shows the last year) makes Melbourne property investment look 10x worse given it actually decliend a signficant amount during a time of huge inflation.