National residential property prices up 10.1% in a year: ABS

Today’s latest official dwelling price data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics has confirmed the strong growth seen across the cities in the year to date.

Looking at the June quarter 2013 compared to the June quarter 2014, dwelling prices increased by a weighted average of 10.1% across the eight capital cities.

This spanned from a 15.6% increase recorded in Sydney, to 2.2% in Canberra.

In the June quarter, Sydney managed 3.1% growth while at the other end of the scale dwelling prices in Perth slid backwards by 0.2%.

Melbourne, was the second strongest city for growth over the year at 9.3%, including 1.3% growth in the June quarter. Brisbane recorded 6.8% annual growth, but had the second strongest quarterly increase of 1.8%.

The mean price of residential dwellings rose $9,900, while the total number of dwellings across the nation up by 37,600.

The ABS notes that in Sydney, for established houses, the rise was broad-based with almost all segments of the market increasing.

Strata priced between $600,000 and $1.3 million contributed most to the rise. Attached dwellings under $1 million, in particular strata priced between $550,000 and $800,000, also recorded strong price growth.

In Melbourne, for established houses, strata in the listed segments of above $1.4 million and below $700,000 recorded increases. Attached dwelling results saw mixed results, with some segments rising and others falling.

Managing director of SQM Research, Louis Christopher, said that the figures reveal a strong housing market overall, with Sydney driving the average results.

“Going forward for the remainder of 2014, We expect some moderation in capital growth, but believe the recovery which began in late 2012, will remain intact,” he said.

Christopher noted that their predictions (over page) were largely correct based on the ABS’ results.

“I must say however, that forecasting 2015 is proving to be very challenging. There are many ‘x factors’ at play, including some geopolitical events that could play out rather badly for the global community,” he said.

See over page for SQM Research’s predictions, the ABS results, and how they compared.

Source: SQM Research (click to open in new window)