Home price surge continues in Sydney, other cities subdued
Australia's most populous city has continued to drive a national rise in home prices, while some other cities record declines.
The latest RP Data CoreLogic Home Value Index for October showed a 1 per cent capital gain across the capitals last month.
However, while Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane were the only cities to record price increases, with all other markets heading backwards.
Melbourne had the strongest increase, of 1.9 per cent, in October, but that only made up for a lack of gains in the prior two months.
Sydney continued to have by far the strongest quarterly price rises, up 3.9 per cent after another 1.3 per cent monthly gain in October.
Brisbane had more moderate gains and Hobart went backwards during the month and the quarter, but RP Data's research director Tim Lawless told ABC News Online that both markets appeared to have the best growth potential for next year.
"A lot more volatility across Hobart, but you look through some of that noise and you can really see that some momentum's gathering in the Hobart market, transaction numbers are up by about 25 per cent the last 12 months alone," he said.
Mr Lawless sees Perth and Canberra as well past their property market peaks, as the mining boom winds down in the West, and public service cuts bite into demand for both rentals and purchase in the nation's capital.
However, he said the housing market nationally was likely to power ahead for the last couple of months this year, before the investment segment loses steam early next year.
"Between now and the end of the year everything is looking very strong," Mr Lawless forecast.
"We've seen clearance rates maintaining up around the high 60s [per cent] nationally - in Sydney they're above 80 per cent from week to week, in Melbourne around the 70 per cent mark - we're seeing homes selling quickly and vendors aren't discounting the prices very much.
"Coming into the new year, with potentially some new macroprudential levers that have been pulled, we'll probably start to see a slowdown in investor demand - not just due to the macroprudential rules, but also due to the fact that yields are being quite severely compressed across the largest capital cities due to the fact that values are rising at such a rapid rate compared to rents."
