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The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times
Lanie Tindale

Rent prices dropped last month - is relief coming?

The cost of renting a house dropped last month, new CoreLogic data shows.

At the same time, house values rose - though only by 0.8 per cent.

House rent prices dropped by 0.7 per cent in February, making Canberra only of two capital cities to see a decrease.

While unit rental prices increased, it was only by 0.9 per cent. Nationally, the cost of renting increased by 0.9 per cent.

"The pick up in rents is mostly a seasonal phenomenon, with the first quarter of the year historically showing an accelerating trend," CoreLogic said.

The acceleration is being driven by the detached housing sector, CoreLogic research director Tim Lawless said.

"Although growth in unit rents is slowing, we are still seeing the cost of renting across the unit sector rising at a faster rate than houses across most jurisdictions," he said.

Picture by Elesa Kurtz

Gross rental yields for Canberra dwellings was four per cent in February. This is slightly higher than 3.7 per cent across Australia.

Canberra house prices rose at a higher rate than the national average last month.

The value of Canberra dwellings - which include houses and units - grew by 0.7 per cent last month.

Nationally, there was a 0.6 per cent uptick in dwelling values.

"Potentially we are seeing some early signs of a boost to housing confidence as inflation eases and expectations for a rate cut, or cuts, later this year firm up," he said.

House prices are continuing to grow in most regions across Australia, Mr Lawless said.

"Last year's rate hikes clearly dented capital gains, but higher interest rates haven't been enough to extinguish growth entirely," he said.

"The shortfall of housing supply relative to housing demand is continuing to place upwards pressure on home values across most regions.

"However, it's hard to see a significant rebound in values shaping up given downside factors."

The long-term trend over 12 months paints a different picture for Canberra house values.

They have only grown by 1.6 per cent in the past year, significantly below the national average of 8.9 per cent.

The median Canberra dwelling is $840,103 - this is fairly on par with the average across all capital cities.

The median Australian dwelling, including regional areas, is $765,762.

There are 105 auctions set to set place next week, up from 90 last week.

The auction clearance rate - how many auctions lead to sold homes - for Canberra in the week ending February 25 was 54.4 per cent.

This was less than the weighted national average of 68.2 per cent.

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