Australian home values rise 1.6% in March quarter
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The news: Australian home values rose 1.6% in the March quarter, as property prices climbed for the 14th consecutive month, CoreLogic data showed.
The numbers: CoreLogic's national home value index (HVI) recorded a 0.6% in the month of March, level with February's increase, taking the current upswing in housing values through its 14th straight month of growth.
Since declining by 7.5% between April 2022 and January 2023, the national HVI has increased 10.2%, or around $71,832, rising to new record highs each month since November 2023.
Every capital city except Darwin (-0.2%) recorded a rise in dwelling values over the month. Perth (1.9%), Adelaide (1.4%) and Brisbane (1.1%) experienced this biggest gains.
However, while the national quarterly pace of growth has accelerated from 1.4% in Q4 last year to 1.6% in Q1 2024, the quarterly trend of growth has halved relative to the middle of last year when home values were rising 3.3% quarter-on-quarter.
The volume of home sales through the first quarter of 2024 was around 9.5% higher compared the prior corresponding period, and around 3.7% higher than average Q1 dwelling sales over the last decade.
The context: Property data provider CoreLogic said that rate hikes, cost of living pressures and worsening housing affordability have all factored in softening housing conditions since mid-2023. However, an undersupply of housing relative to demand continues to keep upwards pressure on home values.
Meanwhile, housing remains in short supply and purchasing demand is still high due to above average interstate and overseas migration rates.
CoreLogic said that the strongest growth conditions have migrated to the lower quartile across most capital city markets, after being led by the upper quartile for most of 2023. Across the combined capital cities, lower quartile home values increased by 3.1% in the first quarter of the year compared with a 0.7% rise across the upper quartile of the market.
What they said: CoreLogic's research director Tim Lawless said: “With housing affordability becoming more challenging and borrowing capacity lower than a year ago, it’s no surprise to see demand being skewed towards the middle-to-lower end of the value spectrum".
The source: CoreLogic media release
