‘Impossible to fathom’: Warning signs for housing market

PHOTO: How will the property market weather coronavirus? Images: Getty

The national housing market rose 0.7 per cent over March in its weakest performance since July last year, as coronavirus’ impact on sales volumes began to be felt.

The first two weeks of March saw prices across the country rise, before softening in the second half of the month as the government introduced restrictions on open houses and auctions designed to slow the spread of coronavirus, the latest CoreLogic home value index revealed on Wednesday.

Darwin had the strongest monthly growth, up 2.0 per cent, while Sydney saw growth of 1.1 per cent.

Over the last year, Sydney has also seen the strongest growth, up 13.0 per cent, followed by Melbourne, which has seen value growth of 12.0 per cent.

In fact, in the last 12 months, all capital cities bar Perth and Canberra have recorded positive growth, with all regions recording positive quarterly growth.

Each capital city sub-region recorded positive value growth in March, while only 5 of the 42 non-capital city sub-regions saw a decline in value.