Sydney, Melbourne drive housing value downturn over June

As highlighted by the property analytics body, the median value of housing in Australia dropped by 60 bps over June to reach a median value of $752,110. 

Over the quarter, this new figure reflects a 20-bps loss. 

Housing in capital cities was found to have fallen by 80 bps over last month as well as over the last quarter. 

However, this fall was disproportionately seen across the country, with Sydney and Melbourne almost entirely fuelling this loss over June. 

According to CoreLogic’s figures, Sydney experienced a fall of 1.6 per cent in price values over last month, reaching a citywide value of around $1.11 million. 

Over the quarter, this fall widened with the NSW capital reporting a plummet of 2.8 per cent. 

Melbourne also reported similar losses, with growth decreasing by 1.1 per cent over June and 1.8 per cent loss quarter-on-quarter to reach a median value of $798,198. 

The only other city, according to CoreLogic, to experience loss was Hobart, with growth stumbling by 20 bps during June to reach a sum of $735,936. 

By comparison, Adelaide saw relatively significant growth over the month, lifting by 1.3 per cent during June and 5.1 per cent over the quarter to hit $642,470. 

Darwin (90 bps), Perth (40 bps), Canberra (30 bps) and Brisbane (10 bps) also all experienced slight bumps in growth during the first month of winter. 

Australia’s regional areas too reported minor growth, rising on average by 10 bps. 

However, while the majority of the country may be reporting growth over June, these latest results also confirmed that prices are continuing to cool. 

According to this latest data, the annual growth of Australian housing is 11.2 per cent.  

Six months ago, this figure was almost double, with Australian homes increasing by an average of 22.1 per cent over 2021. 

Last month, CoreLogic reported that Australia’s housing boom had hit the wall, with values falling for the first time in 20 months.

Speaking of these latest figures, CoreLogic research director, Tim Lawless, said factors that include rising rates and inflation were driving this cool-down. 

“Housing value growth has been easing since moving through a peak in March last year, when early drivers of the slowdown included rising fixed term mortgage rates, an expiry of fiscal support, a trend towards lower consumer sentiment, affordability challenges and tighter credit conditions,” Mr Lawless said.

“More recently, surging inflation and a rapidly rising cash rate have added further momentum to the downwards trend. Since the initial cash rate hike on 5 May, most housing markets around the country have seen a sharper reduction in the rate of growth.”

Mr Lawless later said that this trend of cooling is predicted to snowball over the short term. 

“Considering inflation is likely to remain stubbornly high for some time, and interest rates are expected to rise substantially in response, it’s likely the rate of decline in housing values will continue to gather steam and become more widespread,” Mr Lawless said.

Separate figures by PropTrack also reported that June was a time of housing value freezing, with the REA Group outfit recording Australia’s “sharpest slowdown” for growth in over 30 years. 

[Related: Housing prices cool at fastest rate in over 30 years]