Residential property values increased in every capital city in Australia apart from Melbourne in November, according to the latest real estate index figures.
Overall prices increased by 0.2% month on month over the month but the CoreLogic index report says that while the headline results remained in positive growth territory, the monthly capital gain reading was the softest result since December 2015 when capital city dwelling values were unchanged over the month.
The soft performance across the combined capital city reading was attributable to a 1.5% fall in the Melbourne index, according to Tim Lawless, head of research at CoreLogic. He pointed out that apartment values were down 3.2% and houses down 1.3%.
Quarter on quarter valued increased by 1.7%, a substantial improvement over last year when they fell by 0.2% over the same period.
A breakdown of the figures show that in Sydney prices increased by 0.8% month on month, by 2.3% quarter on quarter and 13.1% year on year to a median price of $845,000 while in Brisbane they were up 0.4%, 1.3% and 3.9% to $485,000.
In Adelaide values were up 2.8% on a monthly basis, 2.6% quarter on quarter and 4.7% compared to a year ago to $420,000 while in Darwin they were up 3.7% month on month and quarter on quarter but just 1.1% year on year to a median price of $480,000.
Prices were unchanged month on month in Canberra but up 2.8% quarter on quarter and 8.4% year on year to $590,000 while the market seems to be recovering in Perth with a 0.6% rise compared with a quarter on quarter fall of 1.1% and year on year decline of 3.4% to a median $490,000.
Hobart saw values increase by 0.9% month on month but the quarterly figure was down by 1% although prices are still 8.5% up on a year ago to a median of $336,000. Melbourne is the only market to show a marked decline, down 1.5% on a monthly basis but up 1.3% quarter on quarter and 11.3% year on year to $623,500.
It means that on an annual basis, every capital city except for Perth is now showing a positive annual trend and for the first time since February 2015, Darwin’s annual growth rate has moved back into the black.
Lawless explained that the data for smaller cities such as Darwin, can tend to show higher levels of volatility. ‘The November results also show a rise in transaction numbers across the Darwin market over recent months, supporting the moderate improvement in market conditions that the hedonic index is showing,’ he added.
Currently the national growth cycle has been in play for 4.5 years, with capital city dwelling values rising by 42.2% over the cycle to date. ‘Disaggregating this growth figure highlights the diversity in market conditions with Sydney and Melbourne at one end of the spectrum experiencing an increase in dwelling values over this period of 67.3% and 46.3% respectively, while at the other end of the spectrum, Perth and Darwin values have broadly declined since 2014. Perth values are 6.9% higher since the cycle commenced in June 2012, while Darwin values are 13.8% higher over this period,’ Lawless pointed out.
‘It appears that higher unit supply is progressively weighing down the capital gains across Melbourne’s unit sector, with annual capital gains tracking at 3.9% for Melbourne units compared with a 12.2% annual gain in Melbourne house values,’ he added.
