The ABS December quarter established house price index results
released today confirmed Sydney remains the clear runaway leader for capital
city housing market performance.
The Sydney index increased by 3.4 percent over the quarter,
well ahead of the next best Melbourne and Brisbane that increased by 1.5
percent.
Unsurprisingly, Sydney also recorded the highest increase in
the index over 2014 – up by 12.8 percent.
This was again well ahead of the equal second placed Melbourne and
Brisbane markets where established house price indices increased by 5.4
percent.
Although recording the strongest annual result of all the capitals,
the Sydney index increase last year was nonetheless below the rise of 16
percent recorded over 2013.
The Brisbane market recorded a similar annual result to the 5.7
percent increase recorded over 2013. The
Melbourne established house price index however weakened sharply over 2014
reporting nearly half of the 10 percent recorded over 2013.
Other capital city markets produced patchy results with
Perth, similar to Melbourne, also falling sharply over 2014. The Canberra established house price index however
increased by 2.6 percent over 2014, a significant improvement over the fall of
0.3 percent recorded over 2013.
Dr Andrew Wilson is senior economist for the Domain Group
Twitter @DocAndrewWilson
