Except for Perth & Darwin, house prices in Australian capital cities increase in Q2

Australia’s property market has shown signs of recovery as house prices in six Australian capital cities slightly improved in the second quarter of 2016. However, results of the latest ANZ-Property Council Survey shows Australians continue to lose confidence in the market.

Yahoo Finance reports that national median house prices went up 1.5 percent during Q2 and 2.7 percent compared to 12 months ago. Strong growth experience was noted in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra and Hobart. However, Perth and Darwin suffer price declines of 1.7 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively.

Sydney once again topped the list with a 2.4 percent price increase for the quarter to $1,021,968. Homes in Sydney had breached the $1 million mark in the past, with the highest in September 2015 at $1,032,899.

On an annual comparison, the growth in Sydney House prices was 1.2 percent, the weakest yearly improvement since 2012. Andrew Wilson, chief economist of Domain, explains the hike in home prices to lower interest rates which boosted market confidence.

Record-high median house prices were also logged in Melbourne at $740,995, Canberra at $654,306 and Adelaide at $498,927, but in Hobart the increase was a moderate 0.3 percent to $345,880. In Darwin, prices dipped to $613,590 and in Perth too $568,132.

The Adviser reports that property market confidence in the residential sector was at its lowest level since December 2012. The sector has been cooling off since the peak in 2015. The survey says confidence slipped 0.2 index points to 129.4 in Q2 and further slipped to 126.8 in Q3.

The survey explains the softness to tighter borrowing conditions for developers and investors as companies complain that debt finance availability is worsening.

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"Source: CBRE