House prices improve

Perth house prices rose 0.5 per cent last month, with an industry analyst suggesting the worst may be over for local dwelling values.

Perth’s median house price rose to $505,000 in April, according to new figures by CoreLogic RP Data, with dwelling values during the quarter also up 0.5 per cent.

Across the country, the median house price for the combined capitals rose 1.7 per cent last month to $575,000, with Sydney the highest performer.

CoreLogic head of research Tim Lawless said the improvement in the rate of capital gains had been broad-based during 2016, with every capital city except Perth recording a lift in dwelling values over the year to-date.

“Perth and Darwin remain as the only two capital city markets to experience a decline in home values over the past 12 months, with Perth values down 2.1 per cent and Darwin values 3.7 per cent lower,” Mr Lawless said.

“With recent month-on-month increases in home values in these two cities, the declining trend is now levelling.

“This may be an early sign that these markets are beginning to find their cyclical trough after more than a year of annual declines.”

Mr Lawless also said Western Australia’s regional market was going against the national trend.

“While house values across the non-capital city markets have generally underperformed compared with the capital city regions, regional house values moved 2.4 per cent higher over the first quarter of the year,” he said.

“(However) the regional results are far from uniform across the states, with houses across both regional Western Australia and South Australia clearly showing values have moved lower over the past 12 months, down 1.2 per cent and 6.1 per cent respectively.”

The data also revealed gross rental yields for houses and units in Perth rose during April, up 3.7 per cent and 4.3 per cent respectively.