National house prices rose 1.6 per cent in the three months to March, the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show.
Sydney was streets ahead with home values up 3.1 per cent, the latest official figures show.
Canberra had the next strongest quarter-on-quarter growth, with values rising 1.1 per cent in the March quarter.
Prices rose 0.7 per cent in Adelaide, 0.6 per cent in Melbourne, 0.5 per cent in Hobart and 0.4 per cent in Brisbane.
They fell 0.1 per cent in Perth and 0.2 per cent in Darwin.
Across the eight capital cities values rose 6.9 per cent, with Sydney jumping 13.1 per cent.
APM senior economist Dr Andrew Wilson noted recent ABS data also reported increased activity by investors as a key driver of Sydney’s red-hot housing market.
"Despite the distractions of Easter and ANZAC Day, $6.2bn in residential investor finance was approved over April in NSW – the third highest monthly total on record and just behind the record $6.3bn set over March.
"The proportion of investor finance to total residential has however set a new record at 61.8 percent.