Monday, September 3, 2012

Capital growth flat in August after rising in June & July: RP Data

The above headline does not really apply to the Brisbane apartment market.  Read on....

After recovering by one per cent in June and 0.6 per cent in July following the RBA’s back-to-back rate cuts, dwelling values across Australia’s combined capital cities were unchanged in August. At the end of August, dwelling values across Australia’s combined capital cities were down just -0.6 per cent in the first eight months of the year compared to a -2.2 per cent year-to-date loss in May. The year-on-year numbers have also shown a substantial improvement. Dwelling values were down -2.4 per cent at the end of August compared to -5.3 per cent in May.

“Improved affordability since June has helped dwelling values rise across every capital city over the three months ending August 2012, apart from Adelaide. The big question is, ‘can this growth be sustained?’ On the one hand, winter is seasonally slow, so these results have been encouraging. On the other hand, we know that there is likely to be an increase in new supply over Spring, which may introduce some headwinds for a recovering market. How the market plays out over the Spring season will be an important litmus test for its resilience,” Mr Lawless from RP Data said.

A spokesman from Rismark added, “Late last year we forecast that housing conditions in 2012 would deliver a material improvement over the -3.8 per cent loss suffered in 2011. Despite the fact that the RBA did not cut rates again until May, and we had the banks hike rates by about 25 basis points in the intervening period, the national market has clearly stabilised.”

The Brisbane apartment market showed some improvement over the past 3 months, but still not enough to recover from price deflation in late 2011 and early 2012.

Brisbane Apartments: Capital Growth to 31 August 2012

Month:  Up 2.1%
Quarter:  Up 2.1%
Year to Date: Down 1.9%
Year on Year:  Down 2.3%
Median Price Based on Settled Sales over Quarter: $350,000.

Brisbane apartments are doing better year on year and in the last quarter than Brisbane houses.

Source:  RP Data

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