Values cooling in some markets

Dwelling values continued to fall across Sydney, Melbourne and Perth in October, pushing national figures down over the month.

Corelogic’s hedonic home value index for October 2018 recorded a fall of 0.5 per cent in values nationally, taking the annual decline across the national index to 3.5 per cent, signaling the weakest market conditions since February 2012.

Over the month of October, falls were recorded in Perth (down by 0.8 per cent), Sydney and Melbourne (both down 0.7 per cent).

Elsewhere, values rose in Adelaide (up 0.2 per cent) and Hobart (0.9 per cent), while Brisbane, Canberra and Darwin reported no change from the previous month.

CoreLogic head of research Tim Lawless remarked that the slower conditions continue to be felt across Australia’s two largest cities where investment buyers have been the most concentrated, supply additions have been the highest and where housing affordability is the most stretched.

Sydney values are now down 7.4 per cent over the past twelve months, while Melbourne values are 4.7 per cent lower over the same period. Values also declined in Perth and Darwin however, the downturn in these two cities has been ongoing since mid-2014, with values falling 3.3 per cent and 2.9 per cent respectively over the past twelve months.

Values continue to rise on an annual basis across the remaining cities, although the pace of growth has eased.