What’s happening to house values?

Domain’s latest data shows that Sydney’s median house price has fallen for the first time in nearly two years. 

The decline in Sydney house prices of 1.9 per cent in the three months to September saw the median house price in the NSW capital adjust to $1,167,516 – still an extremely strong number.

Following Domain’s announcement, the National Australia Bank came out to say it has adjusted its Sydney house price growth forecast which was first released three months ago. The major bank lowered its growth outlook for houses in the NSW capital to 5.1 per cent (from 6.7 per cent in July).

The price fall isn’t unexpected and resembles the drop in value that we saw in 2015, when government regulations around investment lending were first introduced. After a renewed push by the banks to curb lending this year, it seems the measures today are having an even greater impact.

Despite all this, it seems that markets remain buoyant and stable. In the past three weeks, Belle Property’s auction clearance rate hasn’t dropped below 80 per cent and as our NSW Chief Auctioneer, Andrew Robinson said: “properties are selling strongly when presented professionally and priced realistically.”