Welcome to CoreLogic’s housing market update for March 2016.  The latest hedonic index results from CoreLogic showed further growth in dwelling values across most of the capital cities. The February data showed capital city dwelling values rose by 1.4% over the month, once again being fuelled by Sydney and Melbourne, as well as strong capital gains across Canberra and Hobart where the performance of the housing market has been gathering some pace.

Weaker market conditions have persisted in the mining states, with dwelling values slipping lower over the year in Perth and Darwin, while Brisbane values also slipped over the month.

Focussing on the broader combined capital cities data, housing market growth conditions have been rebounding since the middle of last year, when, on two separate occasions, interest rates were cut and investor demand started to once again trend higher.  Prior to this, the growth trend across the housing market had been slowing, reaching a cyclical low point over the twelve months ending July 2016 when the annual change in capital city dwelling values slowed to 6.1%.

Since that time the annual growth rate has almost doubled to reach 11.7% over the twelve months ending February this year.  This is the fastest annual growth rate since June 2010.

Take a look at the national update or your capital city update by clicking on the relevant link below:

• National
• Melbourne
• Sydney
• Adelaide
• Brisbane
• Perth

Overall, the latest results from the CoreLogic Hedonic Index highlights the performance diversity across Australia’s housing market.  The continuation of the capital gains rebound is likely to create further discomfort among policy makers, particularly in light of the growing debate around affordability and the high level of demand from investors.

I remain of the view that housing market conditions will moderate during 2017 due to affordability constraints impacting on housing demand, as well as higher supply levels and an eventual slowing of investment demand brought about either through changed lending policies from Australian lenders or via regulatory changes aimed at slowing credit growth across the investment sector.

As always, a wide array of housing market data and commentary can be found at our web site, www.corelogic.com.au.

More from NAB:

• Australian Property Insights
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