On Thursday, CoreLogic reported that national housing values continue to slide, with housing activity showing further signs of weakening.
CoreLogic Head of Research Tim Lawless pointed to tighter credit conditions as one of the main drivers of the slowdown.
The country saw home values’ annual decline across the national index reach 3.5%. This marked the weakest macro-housing market conditions since February 2012, and resulted to the hedonic home value index register a 0.5% dip in dwelling values nationally in October.
On a quarterly basis, dwelling values currently dropping across both the combined capital city regions and combined regional areas of Australia by 1.6% and 0.7%, respectively.
“With such broad-based weakness in housing market conditions, it’s clear that tighter credit availability is acting as a drag on housing demand and impacting adversely on the performance of housing values across most areas of the country” Lawless reiterated.
Described as places where investment buyers have been the most concentrated, supply additions have been the highest and where housing affordability is the most stretched, Australia’s two largest cities still exhibit the weakest conditions among markets.
Sydney values are down 7.4% over the last year, while Melbourne values tracked lower by 4.7% over the same period. There was also downturn in Perth and Darwin, with prices sinking 3.3% and 2.9%, respectively, over the previous year.
Dwelling values in remaining cities were observed to be hiking, but the pace of growth is declining.
The regional housing markets, meanwhile, posted varied performance. Regional Tasmania was the only broad region nationally where dwelling values are recording double digit growth (+11.4%). Both Hobart and regional Tasmania continue to record strong housing market conditions, thanks to robust housing demand and a shortage of supply.
Regional Victoria’s conditions also look rosy as demand continues to pull away from Melbourne towards the more affordable cities peripheral to the city’s metropolitan area.
Finally, condition remains tough in Western Australia albeit revealing some renewed momentum. Values decreased by 6.5% over the past twelve months.
