But she warned that while conditions suggested things were moving in to positive territory, there were still some “dark clouds looming on the horizon”.
“If a lot more people lose their jobs, then things could get very bad and it will be far harder to turn things around,” Ms Conisbee said in the report, noting that investor lending was down significantly, and so were the number of Asian buyers.
“While it’s easy to look at the changes and only see the negatives, there are, as always, some things that are looking particularly positive,” she said.
“Many mining towns are returning to growth after five years of negative conditions.
“Rental growth in these areas started some time ago, but a recovery is now following suit.”
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WHAT THE REPORT SAID, CITY BY CITY:
BRISBANE: up 0.1% – “Over supply of apartments in Brisbane had the potential to derail Australia’s financial stability, however, not only did Brisbane weather the downturn very well, it is the first capital city to see positive growth in June.”
CANBERRA: down 0.3% – “We have come out of this downward cycle with prices in Canberra pretty much where they were at the beginning.”
SYDNEY: down 0.4% – “Sydney prices fell again slightly in June after flat conditions in April and May. If this downturn has now ended, the price fall from peak to trough ended up being 11%, far less than what most commentators predicted.”
MELBOURNE: down 0.4% – “Melbourne prices may have flat lined in June, but it is still too early to tell whether this means the worst is behind us. Some markets in Melbourne are however starting to turn around.”
ADELAIDE: down 0.7% – “While Adelaide didn’t see the heady highs that we saw in Melbourne and Sydney during the boom, it kept powering ahead when both those markets started declining.”
HOBART: down 0.7% – “Prices in Hobart grew by 30% – the best performing market in Australia. Hobart’s dream price run seems to have ended”
PERTH: down 0.7% – “It has now been over five years since the Perth market started declining. There is of course always some good news. Recoveries start with premium suburbs lifting and this has been going on for some time in Perth.”
DARWIN: down 1.6% – “Darwin property has lost a quarter of its value over the past five years. While the market remains very challenged, the generous first home buyer scheme has provided a bit of positivity”.
(Percentages based on quarter-on-quarter dwelling median value changes. Source: Australian Property Market Report – July 2019)
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Source: realestate.com.au