Australian home values continued to trend higher in April with CoreLogic’s national Home Value Index (HVI) rising 0.6%. This was on par with the pace of gains recorded in both February and March, with the month-on-month rise adding approximately $4,720 to the national median dwelling value. April’s increase takes the current growth cycle into its 15th month, with housing values up 11.1% or approximately $78,000 since the trough in January last year.
Perth remains at the top of the growth charts with a 2.0% rise in April, followed by Adelaide at 1.3% and Brisbane at 0.9%.
The monthly change in Sydney values (+0.4%) has held reasonably firm around the 0.4% mark each of the past three months, while Melbourne’s market (-0.1%) has broadly stabilised after recording a subtle -0.8% dip over the three months to January.
The smaller capitals have emerged from relatively soft conditions, with both Hobart and ACT recording three months of consistent, albeit mild, rises in home values.
Darwin, where housing affordability is less challenging, is the exception, while Sydney’s lower quartile and broad middle of the market are showing the same quarterly change at 1.7% compared with a 0.5% rise in upper quartile dwelling values.
Looking at value movements over the past three months, the strongest regional markets were aligned with the strongest capital cities. Regional WA (+5.3%) led the pace of gains, followed by Regional SA (3.9%) and Regional Queensland (+3.2%), while Regional Victoria (-0.1%) was the only rest of state market to record a decline in values over the rolling quarter.
Estimated sales over the past three months are tracking 8.6% higher than at the same time last year, and about 5.1% above the previous five-year average. However, it is likely a combination of worsening affordability and low sentiment will keep a lid on the volume of sales until interest rates start to track lower.
