Residential property prices rise 2.2 per cent

Residential property prices rose 2.2 per cent in the March quarter 2017, the fourth consecutive quarter of growth, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Program Manager for Prices Branch, Marcel van Kints, said; “While residential property prices rose in most capital cities this quarter, Sydney and Melbourne continue to drive the national result.”

The price rises in Sydney (3.0 per cent) and Melbourne (3.1 per cent) were partially offset by falls in Perth (1.0 per cent) and Darwin (0.9 per cent).

Through the year growth in residential property prices reached 10.2 per cent in the March quarter 2017. Sydney recorded the largest through the year growth of all capital cities at 14.4 per cent, followed closely by Melbourne at 13.4 per cent.

The total value of Australia’s 9.9 million residential dwellings increased $163.1 billion to $6.6 trillion. The mean price of dwellings in Australia is now $669,700.

This ongoing rise may go counter to some recent data, although we note the CoreLogic data this week also shows rises in most centres, after recent softer data.

But of course the ABS data is prior to the recent regulatory interventions. As the HIA puts it:

“There is evidence that since March 2017 dwelling price growth has slowed following the introduction of additional restrictions by APRA and increased barriers to foreign investor participation imposed at federal and state level”.

So the next ABS series, due out in 3 months will be the one to watch.  Why do we need to wait so long for this data? The ABS is very slow to generate this particular series.

 

 

 

Author: Martin North

Martin North is the Principal of Digital Finance Analytics

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