Small lift in Perth home prices

Perth home prices have ticked higher in April to a median price of $520,000, which equates to an increase of just 0.3 per cent over the past year

The 0.6 per cent rise for last month was not enough to offset recent declines, with Perth rated the weakest-performing capital city in the three months to April, when home prices fell 1.6 per cent.

RP Data head of research Tim Lawless said the national data was skewed by Sydney, which recorded growth of 1.0 per cent in April and 14.5 per cent over the past year.

He said that while property prices in Hobart and Adelaide (up 1.6 per cent) outpaced the increases in Australia’s bigger capital cities last month, the Perth and Darwin markets appeared to be winding down.

“The rate of growth in Perth and Darwin has slowed substantially in line with the wind down of major infrastructure projects associated with the resource sector,” Mr Lawless said.

Perth is also in a similar position to Darwin and Canberra in terms of recording falls in weekly rental rates over the past year.

In the rental market Perth houses are yielding 4 per cent, while units are yielding 4.8 per cent.

Mr Lawless categorised Perth, Darwin, Hobart and Canberra’s housing markets as having weaker results than other cities.

He said the Brisbane and Adelaide markets were keeping pace with inflation, Melbourne was solid and Sydney was dominating the headlines with high rates of capital gain.