Morning Briefing: Australian house prices expected to slow

House price appreciation is expected to slow, a new joint Australian Forecast Home Value Index indicates... Auction volumes continue steady rise...

Australian house prices expected to slow
CoreLogic and Moody's Analytics have predicted Australia will experience a slow-down in housing market conditions in 2016, based on their new joint Australian Forecast Home Value Index.

The Index will provide a quarterly projection of the trend of residential home values across Australia over the next 10 years.

"On the outlook for the housing market nationally, we expect house price appreciation to slow in 2016. Our forecast reflects lower income growth as the Australian economy transitions away from mining-related investment, as well as the strong build-up of housing supply over the past two years," said Sydney-based economist Alastair Chan, based at Moody's Analytics.

“Conditions in Melbourne are again expected to outperform Sydney this year, with values forecast to rise by 7.2% in 2016, before slipping back to just 1.3% growth in 2017,” said CoreLogic research director Tim Lawless. 

Although the pace of house price appreciation is forecast to slow in Sydney, Melbourne and Darwin this year, some pick-up in price growth is expected in the remaining capitals, particularly Hobart.  

Auction volumes continue steady rise
The national auction market has continued its steady build up as the year unfolds, with figures from CoreLogic RP Data revealing that just under 2,500 homes will go under the hammer this week.

According to the figures, 2,468 auctions will be held this week, a 5.2% increase on the 2,347 held last week.

Last week’s national clearance rate finalised at 71.8% and volumes this week are significantly lower than they were at the corresponding time last year, when 3,238 auctions were held.

Just over half the auctions being tracked by CoreLogic this week are in Melbourne, with 1,235 scheduled for the city.

That figure is up from the 1,105 held in the Victorian capital last week, which returned a clearance rate of 74.1%.

You may have missed: 
Why half of Australians don't want to talk about money
BDM in the spotlight: Sue Griffiths