Taylor Scott International News
The rate of residential property price growth in capital cities in Australia eased during the final quarter of 2015, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The annual growth rate of home prices across Australia’s eight capital cities eased to 8.7% in the final quarter of 2015, driven in part by a deceleration of Sydney dwelling price growth. A breakdown of the data shows that year on year price growth remained strongest in Sydney with prices up 13.9%, followed by Melbourne with growth of 9.6% and Canberra with prices up 6%. In Brisbane prices increased by 4.2%, by 3.5% in Hobart and by 3.3% in Adelaide but prices fell by 3.2% in Darwin and were down by 2.9% in Perth. ‘From an affordability perspective, the slowdown in dwelling price growth to a more sustainable pace is a welcome development,’ said Shane Garrett, senior economist for the Housing Industry Association. He also pointed out that the quarter saw a narrowing of the gap between the capital cities in terms of price growth whereas in previous quarters, the divergence in the pace of price growth from city to city was very large. ‘During 2015, a record 220,000 new dwellings commenced construction across Australia. The additional supply is playing an important role in containing the severe price pressures in markets like Sydney and Melbourne,’ Garrett explained. ‘Ensuring an adequate supply of new housing in the future requires root and branch reform in areas like planning, land supply and the taxation burden on residential building,’ he added. Taylor Scott International
Taylor Scott International, Taylor Scott
