{"id":631105,"date":"2026-04-26T02:00:52","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T02:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/631105\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T02:00:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T02:00:52","slug":"sydney-and-melbourne-house-price-corrections-steepen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/631105\/","title":{"rendered":"Sydney and Melbourne house price corrections steepen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sydney\u2019s and Melbourne\u2019s house price corrections continue to accelerate.<\/p>\n<p>According to Cotality\u2019s daily dwelling values index, home prices in Sydney and Melbourne have declined by 0.5% over the past 28 days, with the pace of decline steepening.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Sydney-and-Melbourne-home-prices-1.png\" width=\"660\" height=\"396\" alt=\"Sydney and Melbourne dwelling values\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Both cities have recorded their sharpest declines since early January 2025, just before the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) delivered the first of last year\u2019s three interest rate cuts.<\/p>\n<p>Auction markets in Sydney and Melbourne are also weakening, as illustrated below.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Sydney-and-Melbourne-auction-clearances-1.png\" width=\"660\" height=\"396\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Sydney and Melbourne Auction clearance rates\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Sydney\u2019s average final auction clearance rate so far in April (51%) is the city\u2019s weakest since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020 (39%).<\/p>\n<p>Melbourne\u2019s average final auction clearance rate for April (54%) is the city\u2019s weakest since July 2022 (also 54%).<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The interest rate futures market expects the RBA to deliver two more 25 bp rate hikes this year, which would take the official cash rate to a 15-year high of 4.6%:<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777168851_472_RBA-cash-rate-expectations-3.png\" width=\"624\" height=\"500\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"RBA cash rate expectations\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Recall SQM Research\u2019s latest forecasts warning that if the official cash rate rises above 4.5% this year, then Sydney and Melbourne will experience home price declines of between -4% and -9% (i.e., scenario 2):<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SQM-house-price-forecasts-1.png\" width=\"660\" height=\"396\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"SQM research forecasts\"\/><\/p>\n<p>This week, amid the slump in auction clearance rates, SQM Research founder Louis Christopher told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.news.com.au\/finance\/real-estate\/auction-clearance-rates-drop-to-lowest-level-since-lockdown\/news-story\/d2b79f276717bd1013914d992445da4c\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">News.com.au<\/a> that his price fall forecasts remain on track:<\/p>\n<p>Louis Christopher said it was \u201ca very, very bleak result\u201d for the Sydney housing market.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur numbers are some of the lowest we\u2019ve recorded since the Covid lockdown in 2020, when auction markets essentially collapsed in the lead up to lockdown,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat it tells me is that housing prices are falling in Sydney as we speak.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>SQM\u2019s revised forecast for the year is that Sydney housing prices will fall by up to 6%.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would suggest we\u2019re very much on track for that type of outcome,\u201d Mr Christopher said\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>For the Victorian capital, Mr Christopher said \u201cit\u2019s not a great result\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s certainly not as weak as Sydney\u2019s, but we\u2019ve been noticing that Melbourne\u2019s clearance rates have actually been in a downtrend since August 2025,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd it\u2019s been a pretty persistent downtrend\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Christopher added that the \u201cimmediate outlook is weak\u201d, given the prospect of further rate hikes and budget changes to property tax concessions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sydney\u2019s and Melbourne\u2019s house price corrections continue to accelerate. According to Cotality\u2019s daily dwelling values index, home prices&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,164],"class_list":{"0":"post-631105","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-economy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}