Melbourne houses and units end year in the red: Residex

The release of December data from Residex appears to confirm that Melbourne house prices probably went nowhere in 2012.

Residex reports a 1.5% rebound in Melbourne house prices in the final quarter of the year, but with house prices still down 1.4% over the year with a median value $566,000.

Unit prices dropped 1.4% over the quarter to end the year down 4.3%, with a median price of $427,000.

The Residex figures means that two data providers – Residex and RP Data – have Melbourne house prices down over 2012, while two – the Real Estate Institute of Victoria (REIV) and Australian Property Monitors (APM) have them up.

Melbourne houses

Melbourne units

*The REIV figures compare December quarter 2012 figures with December 2011 quarter figures. APM and RP Data are annual changes over 2012.

Averaging out the four property data providers indicates, as suggested by Property Observer before publication of the Residex figures, that property prices in Melbourne hardly moved in 2012.

The average house price change for Melbourne is 0.2% over 2012 while units fell 0.8%.

Residex had Sydney as the top-performing detached house market over 2012 (up 4.91%) with Perth the strongest performing unit market up 10.89%.

Residex chief executive John Edwards says that overall, 2012 was a better year for Australian property than the previous 12-month period.

“Additionally, the past few weeks will have helped consumers gain higher levels of optimism as there has been positive news surrounding the US economy and little negative news out of Europe. Lifted confidence should flow into higher levels of housing market activity,” says Edwards.

“On the other hand, the floods currently being experienced in Northern NSW and Queensland will be having a dampening influence on these markets. Some slowing in the economy will drive unemployment, which will also have some moderating impacts. However, we shouldn’t get too carried away with moderate increases in unemployment as we are coming off all but full employment.

“On an Australia wide basis, capital growth in the house and land market achieved its best performance in the last 18 months. Weekly rentals also increased, with rentals for houses and land maintaining real value while units outperformed inflation by about 3%. Rental increases are good news and much needed as the sector’s capital value is either stagnant or just maintaining real value. This should be expected to continue,” he says.

The full set of Residex results can be found here.