Property News
Previous News Items
- Sydney prices are on firm ground
- It's going to be the year of the unit
- Tips for buying an investment property
- How to understand Chinese property buyers
- The 15 questions to ask when hiring a real estate agent to sell your property: John McGrath
- US doomsayer Jordan Wirsz's predicted 60% drop in Aussie house prices 'silly': Analysts
- What is REALLY happening in Sydney’s Property Markets
- Why the 'slow melt' in house prices will go on
- Don't bet on a property crash
- Nation's home prices fall as Sydney's rise
- Sydney property prices continue to grow
- Housing market sentiment up in December quarter, with NSW brightest: NAB
- Buying with a positive attitude
- House prices may have bottomed out
- Dwelling prices down 0.2% in December 2011, with Melbourne and Perth hit hardest: RP Data-Rismark
- Strong fundamentals mean there is no Australian housing price bubble: ANZ
- Steady prices signal turning point
- Valuations: How to undertake a valuation when deciding to sell your property share to a partner
- Prices slowly emerging from the doldrums
- Sydney a ‘World Class’ city and a safe haven for Asian investors: Savills
Nation's home prices fall as Sydney's rise
By Peter Martin - Sydney Morning Herald
February 1, 2012
By Peter Martin - Sydney Morning Herald
February 1, 2012
Sydney housing prices have defied the nation, climbing in seasonally adjusted terms in December while they continued to fall in every other capital.
The first O'Farrell state budget can take the credit. The decision to axe the blanket stamp duty concession for first home buyers was attacked at the time for locking people out of housing.
In the short run it has had the opposite effect, creating an avalanche of first home buyers taking advantage of the concession before it ended on January 1.
Bureau of Statistics figures show in the three months since the September budget the number of NSW first home buyers taking out loans surged 77 per cent. In the same period in Victoria first home loans slumped 2 per cent.
RP Data figures show NSW property prices climbed a seasonally adjusted 0.7 per cent in the three months to December while prices in Victoria slumped 1.7 per cent.
Nationwide the two pre-Christmas interest rate cuts did little to boost the market. Capital city prices slipped 0.5 per cent over the quarter, regional prices 0.7 per cent.
The falls are more modest than earlier in the year when capital city prices were sliding by about 1 per cent a quarter.
Sydney's housing market is likely to lag the nation in the months ahead. Many potential first home buyers who would have entered the market this year have already done so.
