Perth continues to lead Australia in the pace of house price increases, while the depressed Sydney market is finally showing signs of bottoming out,according to the latest data by Australian Property Monitors.
Releasing research on Monday commissioned by the Reserve Bank of Australia, APM said the median house price in Perth surged by 4.6 per cent in the December quarter to $363,000, bringing gains over the year to 18.7 per cent.
Perth now has the third highest median house price in mainland Australia behind Sydney and Canberra.
At the other end of the scale, Sydney prices edged up by 0.1 per cent in the December quarter to $518,000, the first quarterly rise for the nation's biggest property market since the December quarter, 2004. However, Sydney house prices were still 5.1 per cent down on the year before, the second successive year of decline.
"While house prices rose in every city, the rate of growth is considerably different between cities, illustrating the various parts of the property market cycle each city is in," APM research director Louis Christopher said. Commenting on the APM findings in its quarterly monetary policy statement on Monday, the RBA said Sydney's downturn, together with stable or increasing prices in other capitals, had brought price relativities between Sydney and the other capitals back to the pre-boom levels of the early-to-mid-1990s. "Following a period of rapid growth in previous years, average nationwide house prices have been relatively stable on most measures since the end of 2003," the bank said. The Reserve Bank favours the APM data as an accurate gauge to the housing market as it more timely than other series and is adjusted for compositional effects that can distort aggregate price measures. Among the other state capitals, the median house price in Brisbane recorded a rise of 1.6 per cent in the December quarter to $332,000. For the 12 months, house prices in Brisbane rose by 2.6 per cent. In Melbourne, prices rose by 1.1 per cent in the quarter to $348,500 and were up 2.0 per cent over the year. Elsewhere, the Adelaide market slowed in the December quarter, with prices edging up by just 0.1 per cent to $303,000, bringing the gains for the calendar year to 2.1 per cent. Canberra was a strong performer, with prices up by 4.6 per cent over the quarter to $363,000 and 18.7 per cent over the year. Darwin was second only to Perth in terms of annual price performance. The median price there jumped by 20.9 per cent last year to $344,000, including a 3.4 per cent rise in the December quarter. While house prices rose across the country, the unit market fell in east coast cities. Sydney recorded a median unit price fall of 1.7 per cent to $357,500. Melbourne recorded a 1.5 per cent decline to $267,000. And Brisbane recorded a 2.0 per cent decline to $246,000.
"It is clear Perth, along with Darwin are still enjoying significant property booms, while Sydney is just approaching the bottom of its downturn now.
