Australian housing values have slipped for the fifth straight month, as the crackdown on interest-only lending continues to dampen housing demand.
That was the key finding of national property report by CoreLogic, which found housing values — on a national basis — fell 0.8 per cent since September 2016.
In the month of February alone, dwelling values fell 0.1 per cent.
"This was fuelled by tighter credit policies, particularly focused on investment and interest-only lending, which reduced demand from that part of the market," said CoreLogic's head of research Tim Lawless.
The report found, over the past month, values fell across every capital city except Hobart (+0.7pc) and Adelaide (steady).
The largest falls in housing value were in Darwin (-0.9pc) and Sydney (-0.6pc).
Values were also lower in Melbourne (-0.1pc), Brisbane (-0.1pc), Perth (-0.2pc) and Canberra (-0.3pc).
Sydney's 'managed slowdown'
In the past three months, Sydney property values fell by the most (-2.4pc), while Hobart was by far the strongest performer (+3.2pc).
Sydney values have fallen 3.7 per cent since its peak of July 2016, Mr Lawless said.
"It's not like the Sydney market is crashing — it's more a controlled or managed slowdown, largely due to a reduction of investment in the marketplace."
However, there is still not much hope for first home buyers in Sydney — with the median house price above $1 million, and median apartment price at about $761,000.
Hobart at record high … for now
Hobart dwelling values were at a "record high", with a median price of $416,840.
"It is by far the best performing capital city, rising more than 13 per cent in the past 12 months," Mr Lawless said.
"This comes after a long period of performance, but it can't continue much longer."
After all, the key drivers of Hobart's top performance in the property market is its "sheer affordability", he said.
"With values rising double digits annually, that will erode its affordability proposition over time."
Darwin has the best rental yields
At 5.9 per cent, Darwin was the capital city with the highest rental yields in the last quarter — but that was not due to the strength of the rental market as such.
Darwin's dwelling values fell 0.9 per cent in the past month, and 7.4 per cent in the past year, making it the worst performing property market.
Melbourne's retail yield was 2.9 per cent last quarter, making it the weakest rental market in Australia.
On a national basis, average rental yields for houses were 3.5 per cent. For apartments nationally, it was 4.2 per cent.
