Capital city house price slide slows in December quarter, with Melbourne worst performer: ABS

The rate of decline of capital city house prices slowed in the final quarter of 2011, according to December quarter ABS House Price Index.

Preliminary estimates show the price index for established houses for the weighted average of the eight capital cities decreased 1% in the December quarter 2011 following a decline of 1.2% in the September quarter.

Melbourne and Adelaide replaced Brisbane as the weakest capital city housing markets, with both recording a 1.6% drop over the quarter.

Source: ABS

For the year (December 2010 to December 2011), capital house prices are down 4.8% led by Brisbane (down 6.7% for the year), Adelaide (6.4%) and Melbourne (6.1%).

Canberra (-2.6%) and Sydney (-2.7%) were the strongest performers over this period.

Perth was the strongest performer of the major capital city markets with a 0.5% increase a strong turnaround from a drop 1.3% recorded in the September quarter.

There were also house price gains in the smaller markets of Hobart (0.8%) and Canberra (0.7%)

Sydney house prices declined by 1% over the quarter.

The pace of house price depreciation in Brisbane slowed from a drop of 2.5% in September to a decline of 1.3% in the December quarter.

In the previous September quarter survey, Brisbane was the weakest capital city market (-2.5%), followed by Melbourne (- 1.7%) and Perth (-1.3%). Sydney (-0.2%), and Darwin (-0.4%) were the strongest performers.