Australian property recovery getting stronger
The APM house price index shows that house prices jumped 1.7 per cent in the first three months of 2013, 3.2 per cent above last year - and just 1 per cent below the previous peak recorded in June 2010.
Low interest rates and rising confidence is boosting the market’s growth, with Sydney, Perth, Melbourne and Darwin all recording “significant” increases in media house prices.
Melbourne led the way with house prices growing by 3.6 per cent - the best performance since the first quarter of 2010 - while Sydney property prices enjoyed a rise of 1.6 per cent, another consecutive quarter of record level prices as the market moves from 2012’s recovery phase to a solid phase of cyclical house price growth.
Brisbane is also on the up, with a 0.5 per cent rise marking the third quarterly increase in a row for the first time since 2010.
“Adelaide and Canberra, however, bucked the national trend each recording falls in median house prices over the March quarter - down by 0.8 percent and 0.4 percent respectively,” notes APM. “Subdued house and unit price growth in these cities reflects the burden of struggling local economies particularly in regard to relatively high and rising unemployment.”
“The national housing market has recorded its best start to a year since the strong market conditions of 2010,” adds the report. “Strengthening auction clearances rates and increased residential lending activity have translated into rising house prices over the March quarter.
“A general housing market recovery is clearly consolidating as expected although activity levels vary between capital city markets and sub-markets reflecting the mixed impact of local supply and demand drivers.”
The positive trends are set to continue, the report argues, predicting an increase in buyer activity in 2013.
APM concludes: “Growing optimism and rising house prices will continue to motivate home buyers and investors to take advantage of historically low interest rates that more likely than not have now bottomed out.”