The value of homes around the country may have been trending lower over the past few months, but they are selling a lot faster, according to recent figures from property valuer RP Data.
RP Data-Rismark's Home Value Index for May 2013 shows that the last two months of lower dwelling values comes at a time when a number of other metrics such as auction clearance rates, vendor discounting, time on market and transaction volumes are performing well.
The most recent figures from RP Data show auction clearance rates over the last weekend in May hit 80 per cent in Sydney and more than 70 per cent in Melbourne.
Clearance rates were substantially lower in Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Canberra.
According to RP Data national research director Tim Lawless, auction clearance rates have been nudging the 70 per cent mark on a weighted average basis over the past couple of months, with average selling time improving and vendors now offering up lower discounts from original asking prices in order to make a sale.
“We have also seen the number of house and unit sales rise compared with the same time last year”, Mr Lawless added.
The shortest average amount of time on the market before selling was in Sydney (35 days) and Canberra (37 days), followed by Melbourne (47 days) and Perth (50 days).
Vendors generally did not have to discount too heavily to sell their properties, with the average difference between the original asking price and the final selling price 6.1 per cent in Sydney and 8.7 per cent in Melbourne.
Brisbane and Adelaide house sellers were making 7.7 per cent discounts on average, while Perth and Canberra vendors tended to knock about 5 per cent off their original asking prices.
However, vendors in Hobart had to lower their first asking price by 12.2 per cent on average to complete a sale.
The RP Data-Rismark analysis of rental markets showed weekly rents across the combined capital cities were up 3.1 per cent over the past twelve months.
With values shifting slightly higher over the year as well as gross rental yields holding reasonably steady at 4.2 per cent for houses and 5.0 per cent for units.
Darwin and Perth are continuing to record the highest rate of rental growth with Darwin rents rising 9.5 per cent and 9.6 per cent for houses and units respectively, and Perth rents up 8.9 per cent and 8.3 per cent over the year.