CANBERRA: Dwelling prices have risen an average of just 0.3 per cent in Australia’s capital cities, to be up by 10.2 per cent from this time last year.
August’s result from CoreLogic RP Data, released on Tuesday, came in a little below the 0.5 per cent monthly rise flagged in preliminary data posted a day earlier. Sydney led the way with a rise of 1.1 per cent, while prices in Canberra were at the back of the pack, falling 1.7 per cent.
While prices were rising, on average, rental growth was slowing, with annual growth hitting a new record low through the year. The median rent for the capital cities rose by only 0.7 per cent over the past twelve months.
“The result of the disparity between dwelling values and dwelling rents has been a consistent downwards trend in gross rental yields,” CoreLogic RP Data head of research Tim Lawless said.
The average gross rental yield – rent before expenses and tax as a percentage of the property’s market value – on a capital city house was 3.4 per cent in August. A year earlier it was 3.7 per cent and a year before that it was 4.1 per cent.
For units, the average yield was 4.3 per cent in August, from 4.5 per cent the previous August and 4.8 per cent in August 2013. Mr Lawless cautioned against interpreting the slower price growth in August as a sign that the price trend had slowed but said the months ahead would be telling.
“The Spring season will provide a timely litmus test for the housing market given its a time when listing numbers normally increase materially,” he said. “It will be important to monitor whether buyer demand keeps pace with the additional number of homes being advertised for sale.”
