With Australian dwelling values dropping at the fastest annual rate since the summer of 2012, it should come as no surprise that a housing downturn was recorded for the month of July, according to the latest CoreLogic Hedonic Home Value Index.
National values decreased by 0.6% last month, putting them down 0.9% over the quarter and 1.6% lower behind 2017 – the largest annual fall since August 2012.
Five of the eight capital cities saw values fall over the past three months. Notably, regional housing markets also trended negatively despite being known for a resiliency to slowdowns.
Headlining the slump was Melbourne, where dwelling values plunged 1.8% over the past three months. It was followed by Perth, down by 1.5%; and Sydney, which dipped by 1.1%.
In Brisbane and Adelaide, where housing values were rising at a more sustainable pace over the past five years, the annual rate of capital gains has weakened.
CoreLogic Head of Research Tim Lawless identified availability of housing credit as “a significant factor” in the slowdown.
Lawless highlighted though that some parts of Melbourne’s property market were still showing signs of life – especially the affordable end, where values grew by 7.5% annually – the luxury market was down by 4.1%.
Melbourne’s unit market was also seen performing better than the house market, with values in the former surging 2.3% annually to a $569,141 median and the latter, sinking 1.4% to $813,064.
Hobart was named Australia’s strongest property market, with values up 1.1% quarterly and 11.5% annually to a $435,833 median.
Overall, Lawless hinted a pessimistic forecast for the market, saying that Corelogic “can’t see any factors that may halt or reverse the housing markets trajectory of subtle declines over the second half of 2018.”
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