The housing market is gradually responding to tighter credit policies and affordability challenges, new data shows.
The July 2017 CoreLogic Home Value Index recorded a 1.5 per cent rise in dwelling values across the combined capital cities for the month.
Melbourne came out top with a 3.1 per cent rise, while gains were made in Sydney (1.4 per cent), Adelaide (1.1 per cent), Hobart (0.9 per cent) and Canberra (2.4 per cent).
Dwelling values down over the month in Brisbane (0.6 per cent), Perth (1.3 per cent) and Darwin (1.2 per cent).
CoreLogic head of research Tim Lawless suggested that stamp duty concessions for first home buyers in New South Wales and Victoria may be having a positive impact on market demand.
“It’s still too early to measure the effect of first home buyer incentives, which went live on July 1”, Lawless said. “However, historically, the first time buyer segment has been very responsive to stimulus measures.”
Despite the higher month-on-month capital gains in June and July, the trend rate of growth has clearly reduced. The rolling quarterly pace of capital gains across the combined capitals has fallen from 3.6 per cent in February earlier this year to reach 2.2 per cent at the end of July.
The slowdown in growth conditions is most evident across the hottest markets, with the quarterly growth trend reducing from 5.0 per cent in Sydney earlier this year to 2.2 per cent at the end of last month. Melbourne growth conditions have also slowed, though to a lesser extent, with growth easing from a 2017 quarterly peak of 5.5 per cent to 4.2 per cent.
At the other end of the growth spectrum, Perth and Darwin have continued to see dwelling values slip lower over the month, taking the cumulative decline to 10.2 per cent in Perth and 14.5 per cent in Darwin since both markets peaked in 2014.