Property
Issue No. 56 - Month/Month year
Adelaide residential market cooling
by Mr Kel Spencer
Adelaide house prices have begun to ease, reflected by the slight fall in median house prices for the September quarter 2010, however cause for concern remains low. Other key indicators reflect a stabilisation in the market for the three month period to September 2010, with 3349 building approvals, displaying an increase of 0.01% on the previous quarter.
Housing finance commitments grew 0.43% to 11,119. This compares to a decrease nationally of 7.80% for building approvals and a decrease of 0.26% for finance commitments. Sales volume to September 2010 has seen a decrease on the 2009 figures but this is most likely due to any consumer uncertainty caused by the Federal election.
The average mortgage size was $300,754, which is an 0.81% decrease over the previous quarter of $303,212, with over 61.4% of mortgages being held on a variable basis. Investor activity has decreased from 35.4% to 34.5% while first time buyer activity has increased from 9.5% to 12.6%, which is indicating that increases in entry prices are deterring investors.
The median house price for September 2010 is $400,000. This represents a decrease of 2.6% for the quarter however still up 6.6% for the year to September 2010.
Growth is still evident in isolated, outer lying suburbs and tapering off the closer you get to the city but the reduction in investor activity is giving homeowners more room to negotiate on inner city dwellings, particularly in the unit market.
This is reflected by the median unit price for ...
