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Australian property prices have started 2020 with another national surge

- February 4, 2020 2 MIN READ

Property prices are rising rapidly again in Australia’s two biggest capitals, Sydney and Melbourne, with values up 1.1% and 1.2% respectively, in January.

The national rebound continued to start 2020, with the CoreLogic national home value index up by 0.9% in January. That takes the annual growth rate to 4.1%; the fastest pace of growth for a 12-month period since December 2017.

Housing values rose in January in every capital city and rest-of-state region, apart from regional South Australia, where they held firm.

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CoreLogic head of research Tim Lawless, said the recovery trend that began in Sydney and Melbourne in mid-2019, has now spread nationwide.

The latest findings are good news for Perth home owners, with five-and-a-half year slump ending as dwelling values edged 0.1% higher last month, alongside their first rise over a rolling quarter (+0.4%) since May 2018.

And after losing nearly a third of their value since 2014, Darwin dwelling values went positive (a +0.1% rise) in January.

In regional areas, regional Tasmania performed the best, up 1.3% for the month, followed by regional Western Australia (+0.9%) then regional Victoria and regional Queensland, both up 0.8%.

Nationally, housing values recovered 6.7% since finding a floor in June last year, however CoreLogic’s national index remains 2.2% below the October 2017 peak.

Four of the eight capital cities – Brisbane, Adelaide, Hobart and Canberra – now have home values at new record highs:  Sydney values need to recover a further 5.4% before posting a full nominal recovery and Melbourne values need to see a further 1.2% lift.

Tim Lawless said that with housing values rising at the quarterly pace of 3.7%, a nominal recovery in the national home value measure will most likely occur in the next two-to-three months.

He noted there was a slowdown in price growth nonetheless.

“Factoring in the seasonal affect, the latest results indicate a reduction in the speed of growth across most markets, especially for Sydney and Melbourne where affordability constraints are once again becoming more pressing,” he said.

“As advertised stock levels rise over the early part of the year, we could see some further dampening of growth rates.”

The median value for a house in Sydney is now $994,300. Values rose by 6.7% over the quarter, an astonishing 27% annualised rate.

Melbourne median value hit $798,671 on a 5.6% quarterly increase – a 22% annualised rate.

All major capitals reported a rise in house values through the month. They were up by 0.7 per cent in Brisbane, by 0.2 per cent in Adelaide, by 0.1 per cent in Perth, by 0.9 per cent in Hobart and by 0.3 per cent in Canberra.