THE days of big property price growth are behind us with the NAB already downgrading its predictions of how high prices will increase this year.
The latest NAB Residential Property Survey said current conditions meant the market had already started to cool.
As a result it had lowered its forecast for average national house price growth in 2016 from 2.3 per cent to just 1 per cent.
It also predicted that unit prices would most likely fall by 1.2 per cent.
The report said NAB now had weaker expectations in all capital cities.
On a capital city basis, Brisbane is tipped to have the best price growth this year of about 3 per cent, compared to about 4.3 per cent last year.
Sydney’s days of big gains eased with NAB predicting it’s growth will be only 0.6 per cent and Melbourne will be about 2 per cent.
“The Adelaide market is not expected to improve much in 2016 - an increase of 0.2 per cent roughly offsetting a similar fall in prices in 2015,’’ the report said.
“Perth will remain very weak as prices decline by another 3 per cent.’’
Apartments prices are tipped to drop in most capital cities this year.
“Our overall assessment is that the possibility of a more severe correction in the Australian housing market is still remote, although the risks have escalated over the past six months.