PropTrack data on Monday showed that home prices rose 0.14%
in April, bringing the cumulative increase this year to 0.75%.
(Reporting by Sam McKeith and Stella Qiu; Editing by Jamie
Freed and Jacqueline Wong)
(Adds call changes by CBA and AMP on housing prices, data from
PropTrack)
SYDNEY, May 1 (Reuters) - Australian home prices rose
for a second straight month in April, in a further signal that
the nation's property market may have hit a floor ahead of a
central bank rate decision on Tuesday.
Figures from property consultant CoreLogic released on
Monday showed prices nationally rose 0.5% in April from March,
when values were up 0.6%, indicating Australian home prices may
have bottomed out after slumping 9.1% from May 2022 to February.
Sydney, the capital of Australia's most populous state New
South Wales, led the way in April, with prices rising 1.3%,
while in the capital of Victoria state, Melbourne, they ticked
up 0.1%, the data showed.
CoreLogic research director Tim Lawless said prices were
"stabilising or rising" across most parts of Australia, and
there was a good chance consumer sentiment would improve,
boosting housing purchases and sales, as interest rates looked
more stable.
"Other indicators are confirming the positive shift," he
said. "Auction clearance rates are holding slightly above the
long-run average, sentiment has lifted and home sales are
trending around the previous five-year average."
Adding to improved prospects for the housing market, the
Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is tipped to hold its interest
rate unchanged on Tuesday for a second straight monthly meeting,
a Reuters poll of economists showed last week.
Gareth Aird, head of Australian Economics at Commonwealth
Bank of Australia, said the headwind on property prices from
interest rates ratcheting higher had largely run its course,
given we were almost at the top of the RBA's hiking cycle.
"We no longer expect our long held forecast for a national
decline in home prices from peak to trough of about 15% to come
to fruition. We now expect home prices to rise by 3% in 2023 and
forecast a further increase of 5% in 2024."
CBA have the country's largest mortgage book.
Shane Oliver, chief economist at AMP, also no longer expects
a top-to-bottom fall of 15-20% in housing prices, citing "a far
worse property demand and supply imbalance" with immigration
levels surging and supply remaining tight. He now forecasts
prices to be up slightly this year.
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