SYDNEY: The average price of houses across Australia’s capital cities rose 2.0% in the three months through June compared to the previous quarter, bucking a trend of six months of falls, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday. In the country’s commercial capital, Sydney, house prices rose 2.8% on quarter, leading the gains. Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory, recorded the a fall of 2.4% over the same period. Overall, quarterly house prices rose by 4.1% compared with a year earlier.
Rising house prices remain a concern for Australia’s central bank, as it tries to stimulate economic growth at the end of a long mining-investment boom without causing the housing market to overheat. The Reserve Bank of Australia has cut interest rates twice this year to a record low of 1.5% as the country’s inflation rate fell below the official target band of 2% to 3%.
