Australian Property Market Update – ANZ Bank – 17th February 2014

This week’s ANZ Property Market Update discusses what’s happening in our auction markets and includes some interesting graphs and stats.

Here’s what they had to say:

• Following a strong finish to 2013, auction clearance rates have remained elevated in seasonally adjusted terms in the first few weeks of 2014.

• At the national level, home price momentum remains solid; however short-term price changes remain divergent across capital cities. In the past week Sydney home prices posted the strongest gains (to be +1.0% m/m in seasonally adjusted terms) followed by Brisbane (to be +0.8% m/m s.a.) and Adelaide (to be -0.2% m/m s.a.). In contrast, prices were lower in the past week in seasonally adjusted terms in Melbourne and Perth.

As highlighted in the February RBA Statement of Monetary Policy, the increase in home prices over the past year or so has been “broadly consistent with the historical relationship between interest rates and prices”, suggesting the RBA is comfortable with the recent growth in home prices. Looking ahead, we expect accommodative monetary policy will continue to support housing market momentum and further price gains in 2014.