Australia’s premier property market, Sydney, suffered its sharpest decline in house prices on record, statistics have shown.
Sydney median house prices fell by a drastic 3.1% over the December 2015 quarter, according to figures released by Domain. This is the first fall reported by Domain since June 2012 and the sharpest quarterly decline in house prices reported by the city on record.
Sydney’s median unit prices also fell steeply over the December quarter, dropping by 2.8% to $655,845. This is the first quarterly fall since March 2013 and again, the sharpest decline on record.
However, despite the record falls over the December quarter, Sydney house prices increased by 14.8% over 2015 while Sydney unit prices increased by 8.7%.
Domain senior economist Dr Andrew Wilson says the Sydney property boom is officially over.
“The remarkable Sydney boom we’ve seen over the last three years is now clearly over, with the market unlikely to record any notable house prices growth until at least spring,” he said.
“While the median house price still remains above $1 million, at $1,013,258, if current trends continue it will likely fall below this benchmark by mid-year.”
According to the figures from Domain, all other Australian capital cities have reported moderate to strong house price growth, except Perth and Darwin which both experienced weakening market activity.
Median house prices in Melbourne increased by 1.8% over the December quarter while median house prices in Adelaide increased by 1.8% over the quarter.
Brisbane house prices reported their highest results for the year after increasing by 1.5% over the final three months of 2015. Canberra and Hobart also broke records with median house prices up 4.3% and 7.9% respectively. This was the highest quarterly growth rate for Canberra since December 2009 and the highest quarterly growth rate for Hobart in over a decade.
Perth house prices declined for its fourth consecutive quarter, recording a fall of 0.8%. Darwin house prices dropped 2% over the final three months of 2015.
