Sydney value decline slows as Melbourne worsens: CoreLogic's September Index
National dwelling values continued to trend lower over August, the fourth consecutive month of declines, according to CoreLogic's home value index.
Declines are softening however, with values recording a -0.4 per cent decline in August, better than the -0.6 per cent decline over July and -0.7 per cent over June.
Melbourne's -1.2 per cent dwelling value decline drastically skewed the overall national decline.
Sydney and Brisbane were the only other two capitals to record declines, with values contracting -0.5 per cent and -0.1 per cent respectively.
Darwin was the best performer, with dwelling values up one per cent, following by Canberra's 0.5 per cent gain.
Hobart's values rose 0.1 per cent, while Adelaide and Perth remained unchanged.
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CoreLogic's head of research Tim Lawless highlighted the Melbourne market dragging the headline results.
“Following a similar decline in July, Melbourne home values fell by 1.2% in August, the largest fall recorded amongst the capital cities, demonstrating the impact of a worse viral outbreak relative to other cities, along with a larger demand side impact from stalled overseas migration", Lawless said.
"Through the COVID period to date, Melbourne home values have fallen by 4.6%.”
Houses and Units
Houses are still driving the decline across Melbourne and Sydney.
Melbourne's houses scaled back another -1.4 per cent, following on from another -1.4 per cent over July to be -4 per cent down for the quarter.
Sydney's house value declines softened over August, down -0.5 per cent, after a -1 per cent decline over July. They are now -2.4 per cent down on the quarter.
Sydney units were down -0.3 per cent over August, also better than the -0.7 per cent declines in July.
Melbourne units suffered as COVID-19 continues to lockdown the city. They contracted -0.8 per cent, from 0.7 per cent July falls.
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Brisbane's houses recovered to see no value falls over August, with units (-0.3 per cent) dragging their dwelling value decline in to the negative over the last month.
The biggest contrast of house and unit performance was in Hobart. Houses were up 0.3 per cent, but units down -0.7 per cent over August.
Darwin's bumper one per cent gains were primarily driven by houses, up 1.1 per cent, and held by units, up 0.7 per cent.
Darwin now have the only housing and unit market in the country with gains over the last quarter.
“Looking forward we are likely to see a diverse outcome for housing markets around Australia, depending on how well the virus is contained and the regions exposure to other factors such as its reliance on overseas migration as a source of housing demand," Lawless added.