Australia's housing market ended the first month of the new decade with price gains across capital cities and rest-of-state regions except for South Australia, according to CoreLogic.
The national home value index registered a 0.9% monthly increase in January while clocking the fastest annual growth since December 2017 at 4.1%.
Sydney and Melbourne remained the top performers in terms of quarterly and annual gains, with the former gaining the most in the last three months and the latter reporting the highest yearly growth.
The highlight of the month, however, was Perth, which seemed to be slowly emerging from a downturn that had lasted for half a decade. On a monthly basis, prices were up by 0.1%. If the previous three months were taken into consideration, Perth house values were 0.4% higher.
The growth that initially began in Sydney and Melbourne mid-2019 appears to be gradually spreading to other areas of the country. In fact, price gains were recorded across all capital cities and regional markets except in South Australia, where prices remained flat.
Of the regional markets, the strongest showing came from Tasmania, where values grew by 1.3% over the month.
The table below shows the changes in median dwelling values in each capital city:
CoreLogic Home Value Index – January 2020 |
||||
Area |
Growth (%) |
Median Value |
||
Monthly |
Quarterly |
Annual |
||
|
Sydney |
1.1 |
5.6 |
7.9 |
$862,814 |
|
Melbourne |
1.2 |
4.9 |
8.2 |
$681,925 |
|
Brisbane |
0.5 |
2.0 |
1.1 |
$499,691 |
|
Adelaide |
0.2 |
1.3 |
0.4 |
$437,411 |
|
Perth |
0.1 |
0.4 |
-5.7 |
$440,965 |
|
Hobart |
0.9 |
3.4 |
5.0 |
$481,665 |
|
Darwin |
0.1 |
-1.6 |
-8.1 |
$390,143 |
|
Canberra |
0.3 |
2.0 |
3.1 |
$630,078 |
|
|
||||
|
Combined Capitals |
0.9 |
4.2 |
5.2 |
$632,408 |
|
Combined Regionals |
0.7 |
1.7 |
0.4 |
$386,618 |
|
National |
0.9 |
3.7 |
4.1 |
$545,622 |
Growth slowing down?
While house values remained on an upward trajectory since the turnaround last year, the speed of growth, particularly across state capitals, seemed to have lost momentum over recent months, CoreLogic head of research Tim Lawless said.
"Factoring in the seasonal affect, the latest results indicate a reduction in the speed of growth across most markets, especially for Sydney and Melbourne, where affordability constraints are once again becoming more pressing," he said.
A separate analysis by NAB economists said that property-price growth in Australia is expected to slow in an underlying sense over the next two years.
Based on NAB's projections, Australia's overall price growth will hit 4% this year before slowing down to 2.5% in 2021.
"Low interest rates are expected to continue to provide support, as is the low level of unemployment and still healthy population growth in Sydney and Melbourne, however, affordability constraints will arise as prices reach their previous peak," NAB said.
