House Prices in Sydney Outperform other State Capitals

House price rises in Australia’s state capitals rose by an average of 1.4% in February, and by 11.7% over the past twelve months, according to the latest Home Value Index from CoreLogic.

In February, Canberra saw the biggest growth in house values (+3.2%), followed shortly by Sydney (+2.6%) and Melbourne (+1.5%).Other state capitals didn’t fare so well, with Darwin, Perth and Brisbane seeing a fall in house values of 4.3%, 2.4% and 0.4% respectively.

Although Sydney is behind Canberra in February’s growth figures, when it comes to yearly figures, the NSW capital is clearly in first place, with an annual rate of growth of 18.4%. Melbourne comes in second, with an annual growth figure of 13.1%.

“The annual growth rate across the combined capitals hasn’t been this strong since the twelve months ending June 2010,” said CoreLogic’s head of research, Tim Lawless. “In Sydney, where the annual rate of growth is now 18.4%, this is the highest annual growth rate since the twelve months ending December 2002 when the housing boom of the early 2000’s started to slow.”

House prices in Sydney have been rising for a number of years. In fact, since 2009 they have apparently more than doubled (+104.5%).

While news of these increases will be welcomed by home owners, it is not such good news for buyers, especially those looking to enter the housing market for the first time.

“The strong growth conditions across Sydney have provided a substantial wealth boost for home owners, however, the flipside is that housing costs are becoming increasingly out of reach,” explained Mr Lawless. “This is especially true for price-sensitive segments of the market such as first time buyers and low income families.”

“Affordability challenges are most pronounced across the Sydney housing market where, based on September 2016 data, dwelling prices are almost 8.5 times higher than gross household incomes,” he added. “The second most expensive capital city, Melbourne, has a dwelling price to income ratio of 7.1.”

Contact Us

Szabo & Associates, Solicitors can offer expert advice on a wide range of legal matters, including Conveyancing and Property Law (including property disputes – both trying to prevent them and helping resolve them). Please call us today on (02) 9281-5088 or fill in our online contact form.

Sources:

https://www.corelogic.com.au/news/annual-capital-city-growth-trend-reaches-new-high