House price falls steady

Property data and insights business PropTrack released its latest Home Price Index September 2022 report and found that although price falls were widespread, the pace of falls eased.

The data found national house prices fell 0.19 per cent in September — “the smallest price fall since prices started to decline in April this year”, which followed August’s 0.39 per cent.

It was a similar picture regionally, with home prices falling 0.11 per cent in September — a marked decline from the previous month’s 0.34 per cent.

Since the start of the pandemic, house prices nationally remain up 30.7 per cent. To break that down further, the regions remain up 46.6 per cent, while the capitals have reported a 25.2 per cent increase taking into account recent falls.

PropTrack senior economist and report author Paul Ryan said the easing in declines comes as sellers hit the market for the typically busy spring season.

It’s also important to note that September saw activity disrupted by public holidays.

“The moderation in price falls does not herald the end of declines; interest rates have continued to increase and expectations of a hike in early October will push prices lower throughout spring,” Mr Ryan said.

“While we expect home prices to continue to fall across the country in 2022 and into 2023, we will see a pick-up in market activity for spring in October as public holidays have delayed some selling activity so far.”

However, Mr Ryan noted the moderation in price falls “does not herald the end of declines”.

“Prices will continue to fall throughout spring as interest rates rise,” Mr Ryan said.

Regional South Australia, along with Tasmania were the only regions to see an increase in property prices over the month (up 0.55 per cent and 0.08 per cent, respectively). In addition, Tasmania’s capital saw a slight bump of 0.05 per cent.

All other capitals and regions reported slight falls, with capitals down 0.22 per cent month-on-month, and regions falling 0.11 per cent month-on-month.

Sydney and Melbourne — which have been leading price falls across the country — saw falls ease (down 0.18 per cent and 0.29 per cent).

Despite prices in Melbourne below its year-ago levels for the first time since 2019 after falling 0.29 per cent, its median property price remains elevated at $826,000. Sydney reported a median price value of $962,000.

Darwin saw the biggest falls over the month down 0.37 per cent, falling 1.49 per cent from its peak, while the median value of property remains elevated at $499,000.

Adelaide saw its second consecutive month of price falls (0.16 per cent) — marking 0.27 per cent from its peak with average property prices still up $651,000.

Brisbane (-0.29 per cent) and ACT (-0.09 per cent) also experienced falls, while the median property prices remain inflated on the back of the pandemic boom ($761,000 and $891,000).

Perth fell 0.29 per cent, down 0.74 per cent from its peak to a median price of $553,000.

Hobart was the only capital city to see an increase, which went up 0.05 per cent to $728,000.

The data follows CoreLogic’s latest Pain & Gain Report, which revealed the high profits from resales have fallen from their peak.

Upon analysing approximately 102,000 property resales that occurred in the June 2022 quarter, data showed profit-making sales plateaued at 93.8 per cent compared to the previous three months.

The latest quarterly figures are down from three months to April, when the portion of property owners gaining profits from resales was at 94.1 per cent — coinciding with national dwelling values hitting their highest level during the year.

[Related: Economic headwinds drive regional property prices down]