Melbourne property is outperforming Sydney, who has joined Perth and Darwin as the Australian capital cities to record a fall in house prices over the past three months.
CoreLogic data has Sydney’s house prices falling 0.6 per cent from August to October, while the other two depressed markets of Perth and Darwin fell 0.7 and 4.4 per cent respectively.
On the other side of the ledger, Melbourne’s house prices rose 1.9 per cent over the same period.
With Sydney’s property market going backwards for the first time since a sustained period of growth, the national market as a whole has been losing steam since peaking last year.
CoreLogic Research’s Tim Lawless told the ABC the steam was coming out of the national property market mainly thanks to tighter lending standards and crackdowns.
“Seeing Sydney listed alongside Perth and Darwin, where dwelling values have been falling since 2014, is a significant turn of events,” he told ABC.
“The slowdown in the pace of capital gains can be attributed to tighter credit policies, which have fundamentally changed the landscape for borrowers,” he said.
“Additionally, interest-only borrowers and investors are facing premiums on their mortgage rates which are likely to act as a disincentive, especially for low rental yields on investment properties.”
The best performing city was Hobart with growth of 3.3 per cent over the quarter.
“Hobart is benefitting from renewed housing demand in the form of interstate migration particularly from Sydneysiders and Melbournites,” Mr Lawless said.
“They appear to be utilising their enhanced wealth positions to buy very well in Hobart.”
Across the nation, Mr Lawless said the property market continued to travel at different speeds in different states and remained diverse.
