Capital city house prices up 0.5% over June quarter led by Sydney gains: ABS

The preliminary ABS House Price Index for the eight capital cities rose 0.5% in the June quarter, largely due to price increases of 1.4% in Sydney with smaller gains in Perth (0.6%) and Adelaide (0.5%).

Melbourne house prices fell 0.4% over the quarter with Darwin the strongest detached housing market gaining 5.1% over the quarter.

The government statistician also made substantial revisions to March quarter estimates, which now show a 0.1% fall over the first three months of the year compared to a preliminary estimate of a 1.1% fall with big upward revisions for Melbourne (-1.3%, revised from -2.2%) and Sydney y (+0.8%, revised from -1.8%).

Melbourne remains the weakest detached housing market for the 12 months to the end of June, down 4.8% followed by Hobart (-3.2%), Brisbane (-2.7%), Canberra (-2.6%), Adelaide (-1.3%) and Sydney (-0.9%).

Darwin (+12.3%) and Perth (+1.1%) are the only capital city detached housing market to record gains over this 12 month period.

The ABS only provides median house prices up to the December 2011 quarter, showing Sydney at $527,000, Melbourne at $485,000 and Brisbane at $432,000.

For the June 2012 quarter, RP Data-Rismark had capital city house prices down 1.4% to a median of $480,000.

Australian Property Monitors (APM) said capital city house prices increased 0.4% to a median of $545,000.

Residex recorded a 0.7% fall in house prices in the June quarter to a median of $423,000 - but this result is inclusive of regional areas.

The ABS also put out a new ‘Experimental Other Dwellings Price Index’ measuring changes in apartments, units and semi-detached townhouses median prices.

The index shows that the apartment, unit and townhouse market had a smaller drop in price in 2011 than established detached houses.

In the year to December 2011, the new Experimental Other Dwellings Price Index fell in all capital cities with an average fall of 3%. In comparison, the price of established houses for the eight capitals fell by 4.4% over the same period.

In Canberra, apartment, unit and townhouse prices fell 0.6% - the lowest annual fall out of all the capital cities. In comparison, established houses fell in price by 1.8%. 

Brisbane and Adelaide showed falls of 1.2% and 1.7% for apartments, units and townhouses, compared to falls of 5.4% and 4.5% for houses. This trend also continued in Sydney (–2.1% for apartments, units and townhouses; –3.2% for houses) and Melbourne (–4.6% for apartments, units and townhouses; –5.6% for houses).