The pace of house price growth at the upper end of the market – the most volatile segment – has eased back since the recovery began at the start of the year, as affordability crimps demand for more expensive homes, experts say.
“I think we’ll continue to see upwards pressure on home prices, but as we’ve seen in previous cycles, the top end of the market tends to be a bellwether,” said Tim Lawless, CoreLogic research director.“It tends to lead the turning points in the cycle, so now that we’re starting to see upper end prices rising not as quickly, arguably, down the track, we’ll probably start to see a similar trend evolving in the more affordable price sectors as well, albeit with some lag.
In Manly on the northern beaches, house prices on the upper end fell by 2.3 per cent, down from a 4.9 per cent gain in the previous quarter.Sydney-based real estate agent and chief executive of BresicWhitney Thomas McGlynn said the lift in listings have impacted how buyers were approaching the current market.
“That’s something that we haven’t really seen in the past six to eight months, especially not at the start of the year when a seller could take that time because the buyer didn’t have options.” Since the start of the recovery, home values in Sydney’s upper quartile have led the upswing, gaining 11.1 per cent through the year to date compared to a 6.7 per cent rise across the lower quartile of the market.