Dwelling prices continued to sink further in August, with regional markets – which have withstood the downtrend over the past few months — now showing signs of weakness.
PropTrack Home Price Index for August 2022 showed a 0.39% monthly decline across Australia, this means that dwelling values are now 2.71% lower than the most recent peak.
Combined regional areas posted a 0.34% decline over the month. Compared to their peak, regional dwelling prices were 1.41% lower.
Regional South Australia is the only market continuing to see significant growth, hitting a new price peak.
PropTrack senior economist Paul Ryan said prices have fallen 1.2% over the three months to August, the biggest quarterly fall since 2011.
“Regional areas are now falling persistently but continue to be buffered by the affordability and lifestyle appeal that has led these markets to outperform over the past two years,” he said.
“Regional areas have recorded their largest quarterly price falls in a decade, but we continue to see the biggest price falls in Sydney and Melbourne, with Sydney prices now below their level a year ago, and Melbourne unchanged.”
Adelaide, which was the last capital city to record a price fall this year, is now the strongest performing capital over the last year.
Overall, capital cities posted a steeper fall of 0.42%, which represents a 3.4% slump from the peak.
Mr Ryan said prices are expected to continue falling into 2023.
“In the short term, spring will see market activity pick up, despite price falls as buyers and sellers adjust to higher interest rates,” he said.
Overall, dwelling prices across Australia are still 5.37% higher than last year and 31.5% higher than in March 2020, when the pandemic started.
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