Melbourne's property market deviated from the known trend that was apparent nationwide over the September quarter and according to figures publish on Thursday, the most liveable city in Australia, Melbourne is also considered to have the strongest real estate market. According to Domain, the city witnessed a notable surge in auction numbers and a strong increase in median auction prices over September.
RP Data figures reveal that Melbourne home values increased by 7.4 per cent in the quarter. This is nearly 3 per cent higher than Sydney, which is known as Australia's next strongest capital city. Sydney's real estate market has been the subject of a lot of debates in 2015, after the house prices reached a million dollar median in July.
"This cycle has been much more a story about sydney," Domain has quoted what RP Data head of research Tim Lawless has said. "But this is the first time Melbourne has outperformed Sydney on a month on month and on a quarter basis, in this current cycle."
Moreover, according to Domain, the report also displays that Melbourne real estate owners have experienced 14.2 per cent increase in values since September 2014, and it is only a few points short of the 16.7 per cent increase seen in Sydney prices over the same year. On the other hand, Domain data shows that Sydney auction market in September has slowed down, in a sense that clearance rates have fallen below 70 per cent. On the other hand, Melbourne auctions have not slowed as much as Sydney auctions did. Melbourne clearance rates dropped from 75.2 per cent in August to 73.2 per cent last month and that is the lowest recorded rate for the current year.
With this Andrew Wilson, Domain senior economist, has said, "Melbourne is now the capital of auction action, it's now taken over from Sydney."
