CoreLogic reported a 0.2 per cent fall in national dwelling values, the smallest month-on-month decline in the national series since March 2018, according to their June Home Value Index .
On a quarterly basis, every capital city housing market has recorded a drop in value, highlighting the broad geographic scope of this housing market downturn. Annually, the average fall is 6.9%, but regional WA is down one third from peak 5 years back and Darwin down 30.1%, thanks to the wider economic downturn there.
Sydney and Melbourne dwelling values have recorded their first monthly rise since 2017 with Melbourne values increased 0.2 per cent across the past month, while there was 0.1 per cent growth in Sydney.
According to CoreLogic head of research Tim Lawless, the June results presented an early sign that lower mortgage rates and improved sentiment were already having a flow-on effect for housing market conditions in Sydney and Melbourne, while most other regions of Australia continued to show relatively soft housing market outcomes.
“The subtle rate of decline was heavily influenced by trends across Sydney and Melbourne where the pace of falling home values has been consistently reducing over the year to date,” he said.
“Importantly, the improving conditions through to mid- May were largely ‘organic’, pre-dating the positive boost in sentiment following the federal election and interest rate cuts in early June.”
The only other regions to record a rise in housing values over the month were Hobart (+0.2 per cent), as well as the regional areas of South Australia (+0.1per cent) and Northern Territory (+0.2 per cent).
The largest falls over the past three months were recorded in Darwin (-3.6 per cent) and Perth (-2.1 per cent) where the weaker trend has persisted since mid-2014.
Adelaide recorded the smallest decline amongst the capitals over the quarter, with values down 0.4%.
Across the regional markets, values were 0.4% lower over the month to be down 3.1% for the financial year.
Dwelling values recorded a rise over the June quarter in Regional South Australia (+0.6 per cent) and Regional Tasmania (+1.3 per cent).
Mr Lawless said although these areas have recorded modest gains over the quarter, the trend across the regional areas of Australia is generally “one that is losing momentum”.
