SYDNEY: Australian house prices declined for the first time in 22 months in December as buyers increasingly found themselves priced out of the market, while the supply of properties increased.
The Home Value Index for major cities slid 0.2% for its first fall since February 2023, property consultancy CoreLogic Inc said yesterday. Melbourne and Sydney, the two biggest markets, led the declines with drops of 0.7% and 0.6%, respectively.
On the other side of the country, Western Australia’s state capital Perth led gains with a 0.7% increase, followed by the southern city of Adelaide, up 0.6%.
Those two cities also recorded the largest annual gains of 19.1% and 13.1%, respectively. Yet even here the pace of appreciation had slowed in recent months.
“With worsening affordability constraints and reduced borrowing capacity, we have seen buyer demand pushed toward lower-priced markets,” said Tim Lawless, research director at CoreLogic. — Bloomberg
