APM: House prices lifted in September quarter

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By Leith van Onselen

Australian Property Monitors (APM) has released its September quarter house and unit price results (below), which recorded a 2.2% increase in house prices over the quarter at the national capital city level, and a 1.2% rise in national capital city unit prices.

In the year to September 2013, APM recorded a 7.8% increase in national capital city house prices and a 5.5% rise in unit values.

Looking at the capital city breakdown, you can see that Darwin and Sydney led house price growth, with prices jumping by 5.0% and 4.2% respectively over the quarter. Hobart (+2.4%), Melbourne (+2.2%), and Brisbane (+0.7%) also recorded gains, whereas prices fell in Canberra (-1.4%) and both Perth and Adelaide’s prices were flat.

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It should be noted, however, that some of the reported price movements were caused by revisions to the June quarter, which particularly affected Melbourne’s result (prices actually fell from the previously reported result). The median price changes excluding revisions are shown below: 

  • Sydney: +4.7%
  • Melbourne: -0.6%
  • Brisbane: +1.3%
  • Adelaide: +0.8%
  • Canberra: -2.4%
  • Perth: +1.1%
  • Hobart: +1.6%
  • Darwin: +5.1%
  • National: +1.9%
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Unit price performance was mixed. Prices rose in Sydney (+3.3%) and Darwin (+5.1%), but fell in all of the other capitals:

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Again, results excluding revisions to the June quarter are shown below:

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  • Sydney: 4.7%
  • Melbourne: -4.9%
  • Brisbane: +0.8%
  • Adelaide: -0.9%
  • Canberra: -0.1%
  • Perth: -1.4%
  • Hobart: +0.4%
  • Darwin: +5.3%
  • National: +1.8%

APM uses a similar stratified median methodology to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), which suggests that the ABS should also record solid growth nationally when its house price index is released next month (although the two series do often diverge).

The full report is available for download here.

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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.