Australian capital city housing values rose 1.4 per cent in September according to RP Data-Rismark's Hedonic Home Values Index – the largest month-on month increase the Index has seen in more than two-and-a-half years.
Adelaide had the strongest growth result with a 2.4 per cent increase, followed by Perth (+1.6 per cent), Sydney (+1.5 per cent), Melbourne (+1.4 per cent) and Brisbane (+1.1 per cent).
The capital losses experienced over the first half of 2012 have now been completely reversed, with dwelling values up 0.8 per cent over the first nine months of the year.
On a quarterly basis, capital city house prices rose 2.0 per cent – the highest quarterly increase recorded since May 2010. The only capital cities to see no price growth over the third quarter were Hobart and Perth, which saw -1.8 per cent and -0.2 per cent declines respectively.
According to RP Data Research Director, Tim Lawless, the financing opportunities afforded by lowered interest rates have played an important role in improving market conditions:
"It's no coincidence that housing market conditions bottomed out at the end of May, after the Reserve Bank cut the official cash rate by 50 basis points. A further cut of 25 basis points in June and the anticipation of further rate cuts in the pipeline appear to have instilled renewed confidence in the housing market which has driven the growth in home values," Mr Lawless said.
Rismark International's CEO, Ben Skillbeck, indicated that the uplift in dwelling values could not be attributed solely to seasonal factors:
"The recovery in the housing market is broad based and not simply attributable to a seasonal spring uptick. Over the four months from end May to end September actual Australian capital city house values have increased by 3.4 per cent. If we adjust this to take into account seasonality, the increase is still a strong 2.9 per cent which represents an annualised pace of 9 per cent per annum," he said.
Mr. Lawless concluded that high auction clearance rates, relatively low capital city listings and the confidence of vendors to persist with their initial asking prices were the main factors underpinning a housing markets recovery.
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