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Australia's three mainland south-eastern capitals continued to drive national property price gains, as the other cities lag further behind.
Key points:
- Capital city home prices rose 10.5 per cent nationally over the past year
- Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney had double-digit annual price growth
- Prices in Perth and Darwin still declining, but showing early signs of stabilisation
Melbourne is now clearly the hottest real estate market, with prices jumping 3.1 in July, 4.1 per cent over the quarter and nearly 16 per cent in the past year.
Sydney's price growth lagged over all those periods, and it has now been overtaken by Canberra on the list of fastest growing property prices.
CoreLogic's head of research, Tim Lawless, said there is early evidence that stamp duty concessions for some first home buyers in New South Wales and Victoria are boosting markets in those states.
Given that the concessions only took effect on July 1, Mr Lawless said it will take until October's release of housing finance numbers from the ABS to confirm a first home buyer resurgence.
"We do see some anecdotal evidence from real estate agents and from the industry at large that there has been a bit of a response from first home buyers," he told ABC News.
"Which is understandable — when you look at affordability challenges, particularly in Sydney, I think first home buyers will be jumping at their opportunity to save some money.
"We can see that historically, any time where there have been some incentives available for first home buyers … we generally do see a fairly immediate reaction."
Those three cities were the only ones with double-digit annual price rises, as Hobart's previously stronger growth slowed down.
Elsewhere in the county, prices were essentially flat or slightly falling.
Perth and Darwin prices both went backwards 2.1 per cent over the past year.
However, Tim Lawless said this is actually an improvement on the worst falls previously recorded in these resources-reliant capitals.
"We are seeing some signs that some of the weaker markets are starting to trend towards more of a neutral level," he observed.
"We're seeing listing numbers, or inventory levels, in Perth starting to reduce now as well, which is a further good sign."
Darwin property owners have endured a 15 per cent price slide from the 2014 peak, but Mr Lawless said there are signs this is ending.
"We're now starting to see transaction numbers rising quite consistently — off a very low base, granted — but it does look like we're starting to see more buyers becoming active."
Brisbane and Adelaide both had property price rises only just ahead of consumer price inflation.
Topics: housing-industry, economic-trends, australia
First posted