House-price pace hits six-year high
AUSTRALIA’S house prices spiked in the September quarter with a 3.7 per cent jump — the fastest quarterly increase since 2003, according to residential research group Australian Property Monitors.
In its latest report, published yesterday, APM said Melbourne led the country with a 6.1 per cent increase over the June quarter.
The average house price in Melbourne was $487,249, compared with $437,560 in September last year.
The city’s average house price rose 11.4 per cent.
APM said Hobart scored the second-highest rise, with 5.4 per cent for the quarter, followed by Canberra with 4.8 per cent and Sydney with 3.6 per cent.
The rise in national house prices was led by "explosive" growth in the more expensive suburbs, which had started in capital cities and spread to the rest of the country, APM economist Matthew Bell said.
Prices in Sydney’s eastern suburbs and lower north shore had been rising since June.
House prices in some expensive suburbs, such as Point Piper and Bronte in Sydney, had taken the hardest hits, falling by up to 30 per cent since 2007, he said.
However, it was uncertain how much longer the recovery would last because the market was not underpinned by first-home buyers. The rise in prices in the first-home segment of the market had started to slow in the September quarter.
The anticipated slowdown in the first-time buyer market, since the decrease in first-home buyers grants in September, and rising mortgage rate had been offset by investors, Mr Bell said.
Strong rental yields and the prospect of future capital gains were enticing investors to enter the market in the second half of this year, continuing into early next year.
APM figures showed that the national average unit price in Australia rose 3.4 per cent to $367,727. Unit prices were expected to rise by 7.4per cent over the year.
Another residential researcher, Residex, earlier this week put Sydney’s median house price at $610,500 in September, an $11,000 rise during the month.