Property values fall nationwide in January

In January, dwelling values fell by 0.3 per cent on a national level, with Sydney prices taking a 0.9 per cent hit, according to CoreLogic’s Hedonic Home Value Index.

Sydney property prices have now fallen by 3.1 per cent since the city’s market peak in July 2017.

Dwelling values in Melbourne have also dropped for the second consecutive month, falling by 0.2 per cent in January, with a cumulative drop of 0.4 per cent since its peak in November 2017.

Perth’s housing market continues to struggle, with CoreLogic recording a dwelling value drop of 0.4 per cent.

Home values also fell in Adelaide (0.2 per cent), Darwin (0.2 per cent) and Canberra (0.1 per cent), while dwelling prices in Brisbane remained stable.

Hobart’s housing market has again shown signs of growth, with the Tasmanian capital the only city to experience a dwelling value increase (1.0 per cent).

CoreLogic’s head of research, Tim Lawless, partly attributed the January results to “seasonal” factors, but noted that, historically, they have little impact on the overall trend.

“Housing market activity is generally more sedate from late December through to late January, a factor which can contribute towards higher volatility in housing market measurements due to the lower number of observations,” Mr Lawless said.

“Our experience has been that this seasonality doesn’t exert much influence over the trend in hedonic valuations.”

Mr Lawless added that the latest figures signal a continuation of a softening trend, most evident in Sydney and Melbourne.

“While January may deliver additional noise in the indices’ results, the negative monthly result lines up with recent months, which showed a softening trend, particularly in Sydney and, to a lesser extent, Melbourne.

“In the absence of a catalyst to reinvigorate the market, such as lower mortgage rates or a loosening in credit policies, we expect to see a continuation of softening conditions across these markets.”

Sydney’s median home value now sits at $884,442, the highest in the country, followed by Melbourne ($721,128), Canberra ($590,898), Brisbane ($491,536), Perth ($462,646), Adelaide ($432,641), Darwin ($423,926) and Hobart ($409,160).

Further, combined regional dwelling values rose by 0.2 per cent in January, with median property prices now amounting to $357,480.

[Related: Drop in house prices was seasonal: ANZ]