Sydney, Melbourne keeping home values on the climb 

Combined home values rose again last week across Australia’s capital cities, driven mainly by rising prices in Sydney and Melbourne, according to the latest CoreLogic data. 

The daily home value index climbed 0.3 per cent in the week ending 19 February.

Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane moved up 0.6 per cent, 0.3 per cent and 0.2 per cent respectively, while Adelaide and Perth recorded losses of 0.3 per cent and 0.8 per cent respectively, CoreLogic’s Property Market Indicator data shows.

The monthly index was up as well, by 1.1 per cent. It rose 11.2 per cent for the year, with Sydney and Melbourne still the main drivers at 17.4 per cent and 11.7 per cent respectively.

All capital cities, excluding Canberra, reported a drop in new listings. At -28.4 per cent, Darwin fared the worst again last week. Perth, at -10.5 per cent, was not far off. Canberra reported a 20.5 per cent increase in listings.

Houses remained more popular than units, and the average time for houses on market reduced in all capital cities, with Melbourne doing the best at 36 days, followed by Sydney at 37 days.

Sydney performed the best for units at 34 days, followed by Hobart at 38 days. Although Melbourne improved week-on-week, it was still a little off the pace at 56 average days on market.

Vendor discounting was between 4.2 per cent and 5.3 per cent for houses across most capital cities, and between 3.2 per cent and 6.2 per cent for units.

Canberra was the exception again on the low end, at 2.8 per cent for houses, while Hobart was the low-end exception for units at 2.9 per cent.

Perth and Darwin were on the high side, with exceptions for houses at 7.8 per cent and 7.5 per cent respectively, and at 8.8 per cent and 10.9 per cent for units respectively.

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