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By Stella Qiu
SYDNEY, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Housing prices in Sydney
nudged higher for a second straight week, industry data showed
on Monday, a possible sign that the market could be bottoming
out after an almost year-long downturn.
Prices in Australia's most populous city rose 0.1% last week
from the previous week, when values also climbed 0.1%, figures
from property consultant CoreLogic showed. They are, however,
still down more than 13% from their peak during the COVID
pandemic in January 2022.
In other signs pointing to a steadying of prices,
Corelogic's Daily Home Value Index for Sydney stood at 186.2 on
February 20, compared with 186.1 at the end of January while the
city over the past weekend also recorded its highest preliminary
clearance rate for home auctions in a year, with 78% successful.
Shane Oliver, chief economist at AMP, said the increases
were not necessarily a strong sign that the housing price cycle
was turning up again.
"I am a bit sceptical and tend to think it reflects the
return of bargain hunters and a bit of 'fear of missing out'
demand helped along by low listings and optimism coming into the
year that interest rates were close to peaking."
An upturn in prices would make the Reserve Bank of Australia
less concerned about hiking more. The RBA has lifted rates by
325 basis points to a decade-year high of 3.35% to curb red-hot
inflation.
In a hawkish tilt, the RBA this month signalled at least two
more rate hikes to come, prompting markets to sharply revise up
the bets for rates to peak at 4.2%. Australia's house prices fell for a ninth straight month in
January, although the pace of decline eased to its smallest
since June.
(Reporting by Stella Qiu and Wayne Cole; Editing by Edwina
Gibbs)
