Australia home prices keep climbing on tight supply

Across state capitals, monthly prices rose the fastest in Perth. Photo / 123rf

Australian home prices rose in June for a seventeenth straight month, as tight supply outweighed demand-side pressures of high interest rates, a cost of living squeeze and tight lending conditions, property consultant CoreLogic said on Monday.

Data from CoreLogic showed national home prices climbed 0.7% in June from May when it gained 0.8%. Prices are up 8.0% on a year earlier.

“The persistent growth comes despite an array of downside risks,” CoreLogic Research Director Tim Lawless said in a statement, pointing to the country’s cost of living squeeze, interest rates at a 12-year high, housing afforability issues, and strict credit policies from lenders.

“The housing market resilience comes back to tight supply levels which are keeping upwards pressure on values,” he said.

Across state capital cities, monthly prices rose the fastest in Perth, up 2.0%, while in Adelaide they increased 1.7%, and in Brisbane they were up 1.2%. Prices in Melbourne fell 0.2%.

Demand-side factors were influential in the state price moves, “especially with interstate migration rates tracking well above average in Western Australia, Queensland and previously South Australia”, CoreLogic said.

Australian consumer inflation accelerated to a six-month high in May, while a key measure of core prices rose for a fourth month, according to data out last week, prompting markets to hike chances of another interest rate hike this year.

The Reserve Bank of Australia has held interest rates steady at 4.35% for five straight meetings.

-Reporting by Sam McKeith in Sydney; Editing by Sonali Paul