Sydney & Melbourne house values rocket on lower rates

The Reserve Bank’s back-to-back interest rate cuts have super-charged the Sydney and Melbourne property markets with house values in the nation’s two largest cities surging in August, writes Shane Wright and Eryk Bagshaw in the Sydney Morning Herald today (2.2.19)

The monthly CoreLogic report on the national property market showed house values in Sydney lifted by 1.5 per cent last month.

Over the past three months, values have climbed by 1.6 per cent. There is a similar situation in Melbourne where house values increased by 1.3 per cent in August to be 1.6 per cent higher over the past three months.

Unit values in the two cities also jumped. In Sydney they increased by 1.8 per cent to be 2.5 per cent higher over the quarter while in Melbourne they improved by 1.5 per cent in August to be 2.4 per cent better over the quarter.

CoreLogic’s research director Tim Lawless said buyer demand and confidence was responsible for the lift in values as people took advantage of the RBA’s recent interest rate cuts and the Morrison government’s personal income tax reductions.

“While the recovery trend is still early, it does appear that growth trends are gathering some pace, particularly in the largest capital cities,” he said.

> Read the full SMH article 2.9.19