Summary
National dwelling values have been trending lower for 17 months and have fallen by a cumulative 7.4% since peaking in October 2017. Despite the broad based weakness, the national index remains 15.9% higher relative to five years ago, highlighting that most property owners remain in a strong equity position. First home buyers are taking advantage of the falling house prices and less competition with homes taking an average of 74 days to sell compared to 2018 when it only took 33 days. Vendor discounts across Sydney are on average discounting properties by upto 7.1% with the weekly rental prices for houses ($550) and apartments ($520) per week. RBA is expected to cut interest rates in their next announcement.
There were 2,268 homes taken to auction across the combined capital cities this week, increasing from 1,976 over the previous week and 1,915 over the same week last year. This was the last week of auctions before the Easter weekend slowdown and while volumes have increased week-on-week, they are significantly lower than the week prior to Easter 2018 when 3,990 homes were taken to auction; the busiest week for auctions on record.
