Newcastle house owners have started clawing back some of their on-paper losses after September figures showed a 0.6 per cent rise in property prices.
On the same day the Reserve Bank of Australia cut official interest rates to a record low of 0.75 per cent, CoreLogic issued data showing the median price of a house in the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie local government areas climbed to $543,000 last month.
Apartment values fell 1 per cent after rising 0.7 per cent in August.
Outside Newcastle, the rest of the Hunter enjoyed a 1 per cent rise in median house prices, to $433,000, after dropping 0.8 per cent the month before.
Unit prices in the rest of the Hunter fell 0.2 per cent and are now at a median of $334,000, or 20 per cent below their price peak.
Nationally, the market rose 0.9 per cent in September, its biggest monthly hike since March 2017 and its third consecutive month of growth, driven largely by a 1.7 per cent monthly rise in Sydney and Melbourne.
Sydney and Melbourne median prices have jumped more than 3 per cent in the past three months.
CoreLogic analyst Tim Lawless said population growth and the jobs market remained stronger in NSW and Victoria compared with the rest of the country.
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Lower interest rates and improved access to credit were also fuelling price rises.
"There is evidence that many of the largest regional centres are starting to recover with Geelong, Illawarra and Newcastle-Lake Macquarie all recording a rise in value over the September quarter," Mr Lawless said.
Another CoreLogic data set shows 6 per cent of Newcastle residential properties sold in the June quarter did so at a loss to their owners.
The proportion of houses and units selling at a loss doubled in Newcastle over the year to June 30 and was at its highest level since October 2013.
In the rest of the Hunter, 7.1 per cent of the houses and units to change hands sold at a loss in the June quarter.
Meanwhile, Hunter developer GWH has defied industry speculation and started construction of its 19-storey Sky Residences project in King Street.
The building is on a site GWH bought after Jemalong Property Group abandoned the 18-storey Icon Central development in 2017 due to what it called "long and avoidable delays in statutory planning and the approvals process".
GWH director Hilton Grugeon said the company had sold about half the 180 apartments in Sky Residences off the plan.
He said GWH had started double-checking the engineering of its projects after recent negative publicity about the quality of apartment building in Australia.
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