April Housing Market Update

April housing market data released by CoreLogic shows that whilst growth has slowed from March highs of 2.8%, there remains plenty of demand with April seeing 1.8% rise in national housing prices.

Whilst talk is of a slowing growth rate, if you think about 1.8% for April, that represents a whopping 22% growth over a year if annualised. If we look at the national numbers for the past quarter, they annualise to over 27% annual growth which is inline with the most bullish forecasts.

The decline in growth rate is attributed to an increase in supply and decreasing affordability, especially as wage growth remains stagnant and far outpaced by property price growth. New listings rose heavily in April, whilst auction clearance rates remained strong at 77% at month's end, down from extreme highs of 83% in late March.

Growth remains geographically broad, with all metro and regional areas outside of WA seeing 1%+ growth.

NSW outperformed with 2.4% growth in Sydney and 2.2% growth across regional. The city fringes continue to perform well as more flexible working conditions gain greater permanency. 

The upper quartile of the market is the best performer, with the top end of the Sydney market seeing 11.4% growth for the quarter. 

Rental market disparity remains, with lowest growth in high density areas of Sydney and Melbourne. Yields continue to fall as price growth far outpaces rental growth. 

Source: CoreLogic hedonic home value index