House prices tumble even faster than during the GFC
House prices across the country are falling even faster than they did during the Global Financial Crisis with figures showing the decline is widening out from the key Sydney and Melbourne property markets.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday reported house prices across the nation's capitals fell by 2.4 per cent in the December quarter to be down by 5.1 per cent through 2018.
It eclipses the worst annual falls recorded during the GFC when prices edged down by 4.6 per cent in early 2009.
Sydney prices dropped by 3.7 per cent in the quarter to be down by 7.8 per cent through the year. It's the worst performance in the city since the bureau started collating figures in 2003 and the sixth consecutive quarterly fall.
Melbourne prices fell by 2.4 per cent in the quarter. They declined by 6.4 per cent across 2018 with prices down for four consecutive quarters.
Bureau chief economist Bruce Hockman said the Sydney and Melbourne markets were being hit by a range of factors.
"While property prices are falling in most capital cities, a tightening in credit supply and reduced demand from investors and owner occupiers have had a more pronounced effect on the larger property markets of Sydney and Melbourne," he said.
Mr Hockman said falls followed large rises. Sydney prices lifted by 68 per cent in the five years to the end of 2017 while in Melbourne they had climbed by 54 per cent over the same period.
The decline was not just confined to the nation's two largest cities.
Prices were down by 1.1 per cent in Brisbane, by 1 per cent in Perth, by 0.6 per cent in Darwin and by 0.2 per cent in Canberra.
The last time so many capital cities recorded a fall in prices was in 2011.
The bureau reported that the total value of residential dwellings across the country dropped by $133 billion in the quarter to reach $6.7 trillion.
The average price of residential dwellings dropped by $15,700 to $651,100. The total number of dwellings increased by 42,600 to almost 10.3 million.