Property market’s perfect storm

It’s the news Sydney homeowners have been waiting for.

House prices are back on the move across the Harbour City.

According to NEOVAL, house prices bottomed out in December 2022 and have increased by 2.7 per cent since then.

Across the country, Australian house prices fell only marginally in February, down 0.1 per cent.

Ray White Chief Economist Nerida Conisbee said a combination of increasing population and housing shortages were likely the main drivers.

“Prices are starting to rise and listings remain low, meaning less competition for sellers, so it’s the perfect storm in property,” Ms Conisbee said.

She said listings in the three months to February were down 14.1 per cent on the same period last year.

The combination of low sales volume and low sale prices mean sellers are more defensive than ever.

Construction activity falling has also had a negative impact. With property removals also dropping, it looks like this trend is unlikely to reverse soon.

February typically sees an increase in listing numbers, and while this is true again this year, new listings picked up significantly less than February last year.

Neoval is an independent data, research and price index/modelling business which tracks the Australiasian property market with precision.

House price prediction has traditionally been approached using linear or spatial linear hedonic models and focused on big cities.

But Neoval’s team of data scientists use ‘gaussian process regression’ equations to determine the most accurate housing prices and predictions in Australia. It’s particularly useful for regional areas.