Australian capital city dwelling values increased by 1.3 per cent in October, largely the result of significant price gains in the Sydney housing market as well as strong growth in Melbourne and Brisbane.
The RP Data-Rismark International October housing market results confirmed a 1.3 per cent rise across the combined capital cities index over the month with the rolling 12 month combined capital cities index growing at its fastest pace in three years.
RP Data's Senior Research Analyst Cameron Kusher noted that the latest data also emphasises the strong housing market conditions in Australia's two largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, which is having a strong influence on capital growth across the combined capital cities.
"Sydney home values increased by 2.4 per cent in October and increased by 5.5 per cent over the past three months while in Melbourne, home values increased by 1.2 per cent in October and recorded an increase of 3.8 per cent over the past three months. For the first 10 months of this year, Sydney and Melbourne house values have performed very strongly achieving growth of 13.4 per cent and 8.7 per cent, respectively," Mr Kusher said.
Elsewhere, the results confirmed that dwelling values rose over the month in Adelaide (0.3%) and Darwin (1.6%) while they fell in Perth (-0.2%), Hobart (-2.3%) and Canberra (-1.5%).
Outside of home value growth, most other indicators are pointing to an ongoing improvement in overall housing conditions. Over the three months to August 2013, RP Data estimated that capital city home sales were 20.1 per cent higher than the same time in 2012. The number of capital city properties listed for sale is 12.0 per cent lower than it was a year ago.
There have also been marked improvements in the time it takes to sell a home and decreases in the level of discounting by vendors. Capital city homes are currently selling after 44 days compared to 56 days a year ago and discounting levels have reduced from 6.8 per cent a year ago to 5.7 per cent currently.