House prices in Australia have plummeted by up to 8 per cent in just one year
House prices have plummeted by close to 8 per cent in the Australia’s largest city, but an expert says homeowners have nothing to fear.
Sydney’s median house price fell to $976,365 in September, the lowest level since 2015 and the third straight month they have been below the $1million mark, real estate data group Core Logic has revealed.
Melbourne also fared badly. Median house prices within Victoria’s capital fell by an annual pace of 4.5 per cent to $799,657, after hitting a peak in November last year.
The declines in both cities, each home to more than five million people, dragged down the overall national market, causing median house prices to slide by 3.1 per cent in the year to September 30.
Together, Sydney and Melbourne comprise about 60 per cent of Australia’s housing values.
When house and unit prices were analysed together, real estate values across Australia plummeted by 2.7 per cent in one year, with Sydney declining by an even steeper pace of 6.1 per cent and Melbourne falling by 3.4 per cent.
Despite the bad news, Core Logic’s head of research Tim Lawless said the drop in real estate prices, after five years of strong growth, was less severe than the aftermath of the global financial crisis.
Tim said hardly a crash, and a slower rate of decline relative to the previous housing market downturn – June 2010 to February 2012 – when national dwelling values fell by 3 per cent over the first twelve months, declining 6.5 per cent from peak to trough.
Hobart continued to buck the national trend, with house prices rising by 9.4 per cent annually.
The pace of growth in Brisbane, however, has slowed to a year-on-year rate of just 0.8 per cent, a dramatic drop from 2.9 per cent a year ago.
Darwin was the worst performing market when it came to apartments, with values sliding by an annual rate of 15 per cent.
House prices in the Northern Territory capital however were holding up, rising by 2.3 per cent over the year
Perth’s apartment market fared badly, with median unit values falling by 6.1 per cent during the same period, compared with Sydney’s 2.6 per cent.
Across the capital cities, median house prices were $683,437, compared with $564,290 for units.
The drop in real estate values in September occurred after the Commonwealth Bank, ANZ and Westpac raised their standard variable lending rates even though the Reserve Bank of Australia left the cash rate unchanged at a record low of 1.5 per cent.
