National home values lifted 1% in the three months to April – the first quarterly lift in home values since May 2022, according to CoreLogic’s Monthly Housing Chart Pack for May 2023.
The combined capital cities dwelling market value increased 0.7% in April, after a 0.8% lift in March, taking dwelling values 1.4% higher from a trough in February this year. Leading capital growth was the high end of the Sydney housing market, which saw a 4% rise for the three months to April.
Sales volume trended seasonally lower through April, with an estimated 35,398 sales in the month nationally. That figure was fairly on par, however, with what is typically observed this time of year, CoreLogic said.
The amount of time it takes to sell property is starting to pivot, with median days on market nationally down to 33 in the April quarter – a decline from 37 days in the three months to February.
Vendors were now offering less discount on their property across the combined capital cities market at the median level – from -4.35% in the September quarter of 2022, to -3.88% in the three months to April 2023.
The housing pack also showed that in the four weeks to May 7, the volume of new listings totalled 31,356 nationally – a slight uptick after a string of public holidays.
In the four weeks ending April 30, the combined capital cities clearance rate averaged 65.2% – a much stronger result than the average 55.1% in the final weeks of 2022 but down slightly on the previous four-week period (65.4%).
Annual growth in rent values remained unchanged from the prior month, at 10.1%. Across the combined capital cities, rent values increased a record 11.7% in the past 12 months.
Gross rent yields were fairly steady over the month at 3.9%, but was up from 3.2% in the same month last year. Resource-based markets Darwin, regional NT, and regional WA registered the highest gross rent yields in April.
New housing finance secured totaled $24.0 billion in March, a strong monthly increase of 4.9% nationally, while the value of first-home buyer finance jumped 12.3% through March. First-home buyer finance comprised 24.7% of owner-occupier finance in the month, which was above the decade average of 23.7%.
The chart of the month also revealed that the portion of home sales in regional Australia accounted for roughly 37% of home sales nationally in the three months to April. The figure was down from a peak of 42.3% in the September 2020 quarter but remained above the decade average of 35.3%.
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