Survey points to a faltering property price boom on Australian major cities
After more than a year of property price growth, signs are starting to show that the residential property boom is slowly grinding to a halt with most major cities around Australia posting either declining or moderate growths.
According to a survey released on Monday by the RP Data Rismark Hedonic National Home Value Index, home prices on the country's eight capital cities increased by a measly average of 0.2 percent with up to 12 percent rise in the year leading to April.
The RP data showed that all major cities gained significantly as compared to the national growth of one percent in the last 12 months with Melbourne reaching 0.8 percent growth in April after the 1.6 percent advancement posted in the previous month.
The index, which was based on home prices for all dwelling types, also showed that overall annual home price growth in Melbourne reached a high 18 percent and 11.4 percent in Sydney while Brisbane values went down by 1.2 percent, with Perth and Darwin going down by 0.9 percent and 0.3 percent respectively.
On the other hand, Sydney and Canberra home prices jumped by 0.3 percent and 0.6 percent respectively as RP Data research director Tim Lawless observed that the figures turned out as the lowest monthly capital gain since the global financial crisis.
He said that the current market has been seeing lower auction clearances, weak home loan approvals and lower consumer confidence as he added that values should start heading sideways spurred by "six recent interest rate rises and the fact that home values have recorded very large gains across key markets since the start of 2009."
For his part, ICAP Adam Carr economist said that weak credit growth has finally caught up with residential price growth as he stressed that "weak credit growth and strong house prices don't normally go hand in hand, so either lending growth was going to accelerate or house prices ease off."
He said that the trend would most likely lead to moderate house price growth though he gave reminder that the RP Data only showed the April result, which is only one month of result and data series must be monitored closely and regularly for better appreciation.
Mr Carr is confident that once interest rates reach a stable level, home and mortgage loans should pick up and fund a sustained house price growth, leaving note that "it is the pace of rate rises that has people spooked rather than the level per se."