Jonathan Chancellor and Jacob Saulwick
July 31, 2008
ANXIETY that residential property will follow the sharemarket into free fall is casting a pall over the housing market.
Sydney house prices fell by about 2 per cent during the June quarter, say two reports released yesterday.
After the biggest quarterly drop in four years, experts are divided about how much further house prices will fall.
Australia was now "a nation of economic hypochondriacs", the chief executive of property monitoring firm Residex, John Edwards, said yesterday.
The housing market was caught up in a wave of nervousness created by the jittery sharemarket, he said, but Sydney house prices would inch up by about 3 per cent a year in the next five years.
Another report, by Australian Property Monitors, predicted house prices in capital cities would fall another 10 per cent in the next year.
Sydney house prices dropped by 2.1 per cent in the three months to the end of June, says Australian Property Monitors. Prices dropped marginally in the inner city, eastern suburbs, and in the west, but were stable or rose across the rest of the city.
"Rapidly rising mortgage rates and a looming economic slowdown will usher in a sustained period of property market weakness," said the general manager of Australian Property Monitors, Michael McNamara.
Despite the anxiety, which is discouraging purchases, record prices continue to be set, the latest being an $11.5 million Coffs Harbour beachfront sale. The buyer bought Noorinya, and two adjoining houses on the Sapphire Beach headland.
The national research director at RP Data, Tim Lawless, said sales volumes since June last year have dropped by more than 30 per cent in most capital cities.
July 31, 2008
ANXIETY that residential property will follow the sharemarket into free fall is casting a pall over the housing market.
Sydney house prices fell by about 2 per cent during the June quarter, say two reports released yesterday.
After the biggest quarterly drop in four years, experts are divided about how much further house prices will fall.
Australia was now "a nation of economic hypochondriacs", the chief executive of property monitoring firm Residex, John Edwards, said yesterday.
The housing market was caught up in a wave of nervousness created by the jittery sharemarket, he said, but Sydney house prices would inch up by about 3 per cent a year in the next five years.
Another report, by Australian Property Monitors, predicted house prices in capital cities would fall another 10 per cent in the next year.
Sydney house prices dropped by 2.1 per cent in the three months to the end of June, says Australian Property Monitors. Prices dropped marginally in the inner city, eastern suburbs, and in the west, but were stable or rose across the rest of the city.
"Rapidly rising mortgage rates and a looming economic slowdown will usher in a sustained period of property market weakness," said the general manager of Australian Property Monitors, Michael McNamara.
Despite the anxiety, which is discouraging purchases, record prices continue to be set, the latest being an $11.5 million Coffs Harbour beachfront sale. The buyer bought Noorinya, and two adjoining houses on the Sapphire Beach headland.
The national research director at RP Data, Tim Lawless, said sales volumes since June last year have dropped by more than 30 per cent in most capital cities.