Has the upward trend stalled... Australian house price growth slows down

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] According to Bloomberg News on the 1st (local time), Australia's housing prices, which had been soaring, showed a slight slowdown in the rate of increase for the first time this year.

According to the nationwide housing price index released by real estate information company CoreLogic, the residential property price growth rate in Australia in July was 1.6%, marking the weakest increase since January this year.

Australia's housing prices have continued to rise, especially in major cities such as Sydney and Melbourne, as demand for residential real estate increased due to the spread of remote work during COVID-19 amid a low interest rate environment over the past three years.

In particular, in March, the growth rate reached 3.7%, the highest in 17 years.

CoreLogic expects the overall real estate market growth rate to continue slowing due to factors such as the tapering of early asset purchases.

Earlier, on the 6th, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) announced that it would keep the benchmark interest rate at 0.1% but reduce the scale of the third round of quantitative easing asset purchases starting after September.

However, Tim Lawless, Research Director at CoreLogic, stated, "The supply volume is more than a quarter lower than the average of the past five years, and the high demand due to low interest rates remains a factor putting upward pressure on housing prices."