National property prices have fallen for the first time in nearly two years and while interest rate cuts in 2025 will likely underpin more growth, any price bounce-back is expected to be modest. Home values dipped 0.1 per cent in December, led by lower monthly declines in the two big capitals as well as Canberra and Hobart.
Values as tracked by CoreLogic finished the year 4.9 per cent higher, with the median sitting at $814,837. Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today While further price gains were logged in the mid-sized capitals, growth in Perth , Brisbane and Adelaide has been slowing after a long run of sizeable price increases.
CoreLogic research director Tim Lawless was unsurprised by December’s negative national figure. “This result represents the housing market catching up with the reality of market dynamics,” he said, referring to constrained borrowing capacity and cost-of-living pressures. Interest rate cuts, expected from the Reserve Bank of Australia in the first half of 2025, should bolster demand for housing but Lawless was not expecting a renewed phase of strong value growth.
Only a shallow round of interest rate cuts was expected by economists, he explained, which would leave the cash rate well above the pre-pandemic decade average of 2.55 per cent. Affordability was already near its limits, particularly in Sydney and Adelaide, he said.
“It’s hard to see the housing market responding overly positively when we do have housing affordability qu.
