New data shows house prices are falling in half of Australia’s capital cities as borrowers struggle to keep up with rising mortgage payments.
Figures from CoreLogic show Australia is now experiencing a two-speed housing market, with house prices falling in the majority of suburbs in four of the eight capital city markets in the three months to August.
But in the other four cities, house prices continue to rise almost everywhere, reaching new record highs.
According to Kaytlin Ezzy, economist at CoreLogic, house prices have fallen in more suburbs across Australia due to the highest interest rates in 12 years, the cost of living crisis and limited affordability.
“While nationally values are still rising, albeit at a slower pace and below the headline figures, we are starting to see some weakness, particularly in Victoria,” she said.
Melbourne is Australia’s hardest-hit capital city market, with 79.1 per cent of suburbs experiencing a decline in three months.
House prices are 1 percent lower than a year ago, despite the large influx of migrants from abroad.
The average price of a house and apartment at $776,044 is now 4.9 percent below its March 2022 peak, shortly before the Reserve Bank began raising interest rates 13 times.
In the upmarket Mornington Peninsula area, house prices fell in 100 per cent of suburbs during the quarter.
House prices are falling in half of Australia’s capital cities as borrowers struggle to keep up with rising mortgage payments, new data shows (pictured is an auction in Melbourne)
Australia is now a two-speed property market, with house prices falling in most suburbs in four of the eight capital city markets in the three months to August, figures from CoreLogic show.
Victoria is Australia’s worst performing property market after the introduction of a flat $975 investor tax in January.
In Geelong, prices fell in 97.8 percent of suburbs, while in Ballarat the figure was 100 percent.
Hobart is Australia’s second worst capital city market, with 54.3 per cent of suburbs declining in the August quarter.
The average house price in Tasmania’s capital, $655,114, is down a whopping 12.2 per cent from its peak in March 2022. Prices have fallen 1.2 per cent over the past year.
Canberra is another underperforming market, with 51.6 per cent of suburbs declining in the quarter.
The average house and apartment price of $845,875 is 6.1 per cent below the peak reached in May 2022, the month the RBA raised interest rates for the first time since 2010.
Darwin, by far Australia’s most affordable capital city, saw prices fall in 51.2 per cent of suburbs.
The average home price of $504,367 is 6 percent below its May 2014 peak.
Hobart is Australia’s second worst housing market, with 54.3 per cent of suburbs declining in the August quarter
But at the other end of the spectrum, house prices rose across all of Perth’s suburbs.
House and condo prices have risen 22 percent over the past year to a record $785,250.
Western Australia’s capital is also benefiting from large-scale interstate migration. For example, Perth’s house prices have risen again during the pandemic, after years of stagnation following the end of the mining boom a decade ago.
Brisbane is another strong market, based on interstate migration flows, with only 3.8 per cent of suburbs seeing their values decline.
Over the past year, home prices have risen 15 percent to $875,040.
Adelaide does not have a high level of interstate migration, but only 3.1 per cent of suburbs experienced a price drop in three months.
Home prices rose 14.9 percent in a year to a record high of $790,789.
In Sydney, Australia’s most expensive major city, house prices fell in 25.9 percent of suburbs (pictured are homes in Oran Park in Sydney’s west)
In Sydney, Australia’s most expensive major city, house prices fell in 25.9 percent of suburbs.
But the average price of a house and a condo has risen 5 percent over the past year to a record high of $1.180 million.
Nationally, values fell in 29.2 percent of the 3,655 suburbs CoreLogic analyzed in the three months to August.
The Reserve Bank last month left the cash rate unchanged at 4.35 percent, the highest level in 12 years. But Governor Michele Bullock said it was unlikely that there would be any relief from the most aggressive rate hikes since the late 1980s until 2024.