The Illawarra property market experienced a “pretty swift reversal of fortunes” in 2018, but still remains more expensive than most regional areas, an expert says.
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The latest CoreLogic Hedonic Home Value Index reveals that Australian dwelling values fell 4.8 per cent through 2018, marking the weakest housing market conditions since 2008.
According to the CoreLogic figures, the downturn in Australian housing conditions accelerated through 2018, driven by consistently larger quarter-on-quarter declines in Sydney and Melbourne, together with a reprisal in Perth’s rate of decline and slowing conditions across the remaining capital cities and most regional markets.
The year finished with national dwelling values down 4.8 per cent, including an 8.9 per cent fall in Sydney values.
CoreLogic’s head of research Cameron Kusher said the Illawarra region had experienced a 6.2 per cent fall in property values over the past year.
“So if you look at that in the context of what happened in 2017, (when) the market was up 8.1 per cent, it’s a pretty swift reversal of fortunes for the market," he said.
“It’s been led by what’s happening in Sydney.
“It was driven on the way up by strong growth in Sydney, which spilled out over into the Illawarra region.
“Now as the market slows in Sydney it’s dragging down the Illawarra region as well.
“Our view would be that we’ll continue to see some falls over the next 12 months, much like what we expect to happen in Sydney.”
However, Mr Kusher noted that with a current median dwelling value of $621,000 it was, “still pretty expensive in the Illawarra region”.
“It’s still a lot more expensive than most other regional areas in the country, but also quite a number of capital cities too,” he said.
