Perth home prices drop 0.3%

The average home price dropped 0.3 per cent, to $545,000, in Perth in the 12 months to March, against a national average gain of 6.9 per cent, to $576,100.

According to the latest figures by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Perth and Darwin reported the weakest outcomes and were the only cities to post a fall in prices.

“The residential property price for Perth fell 0.1 per cent in the March quarter 2015,” the ABS said.

“This follows a flat result in the December quarter 2014 and a fall in the September quarter 2014 of 0.3 per cent.”

Sydney enjoyed a double-digit home price growth, up 13.1 per cent to an average price of $786,000, while Melbourne was up 4.7 per cent to $527,500.

JP Morgan economist Ben Jarman said the gap in annual price growth between Sydney and the rest of the country was at its widest in 10 years.

"Sydney is booming, while outcomes elsewhere are much more subdued, generally running in low single digit annual growth rates in the rest of the country," he said.

"This has made life difficult for the Reserve Bank of Australia, forcing regulators down the path of enhancing macro-prudential oversight of mortgage lending in the Sydney market."

The ABS figures show that, when comparing Sydney with the rest of the nation, growth in prices for detached housing is faster than that for higher-density dwellings.

Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens recently described Sydney house prices as "crazy", while Treasury secretary John Fraser believes the city is "unequivocally" in a house price bubble.