First home buyer fade leads December home price dip
According to a report on the ABC economic factors pushed the Australian property market lower in December despite a positive year-to-date performance.
Australian capital city home values slipped 0.3 per cent in December, but still recorded 11.5 per cent growth over the year.
The data from real estate analysts RP Data and funds manager Rismark shows that the median Australian dwelling (including houses and apartments) was worth $451,000.
RP Data's research director, Tim Lawless, says the typical summer slow-down, as well as changes to monetary policy and the reduction of Federal Government grants saw the residential property market soften at the end of last year.
"We have seen interest rates of course going up which has dampened demand somewhat," he said.
The report went on to claim that Perth had the lowest rental yield of all the capital cities.
