Nearly every capital city recorded a fall, and the softening is spreading into regional markets too. But for brokers advising clients that now might be the moment to buy, one figure complicates the picture: approvals data show the supply side of the market is still barely moving.
House prices fall
Roughly 93% of Australian suburbs recorded a price fall in August. Sydney led the declines among the capitals, falling 1.4%, followed by Melbourne and Canberra, both down 1.1%, and Brisbane and Perth, down 1% and 0.8% respectively. Darwin was the only capital to record a rise, up 0.6%, though it retains the country’s cheapest median dwelling value at $647,000.
Gerard Berg, Cotality’s head of research, said the pattern of decline typically starts in the most expensive suburbs before spreading outward. “We have seen a slower spread across the other parts of cities,” Berg said. In Sydney, some of the more affordable outer areas – including Camden, Penrith and the Blue Mountains – have so far posted the city’s strongest 12-month growth, a pattern Berg expects to shift as the downturn broadens into cheaper suburbs.
Sydney slide outpacing the last major correction
Sydney values are now 7.1% below their February peak – a pace of decline that has overtaken the 2022–23 correction, when the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) lifted the cash rate by 425 basis points and national home values fell 6.6% peak-to-trough.