Falling values improve residential property affordability
If you have been holding off buying residential property in the hope that prices will decline, then now could be the best time to enter the market.
The latest figures from RP Data reveal that in the three months to April, the price of dwellings in Australia's capital cities have declined by 1.2 per cent on a seasonally adjusted basis.
Looking at the property market over the past 12 months, the price of residential properties has fallen by 1.5 per cent.
This is a trend that has largely been triggered by expensive suburbs, which have dragged down the market as a whole.
Not only this, but the luxury end of the market has shown some signs of volatility.
Tim Lawless from RP Data commented: "The solid performance of cheap suburbs runs against the grain of popular claims that default rates are rocketing up amongst first-time buyers, which the RBA recently rejected."
The HIA and Commonwealth Bank Housing Affordability Index recently showed that affordability improved by 6.4 per cent during the first three months of the year.
The trend was owed to changes in mortgage conditions, giving people access to the funds they need for buying a property.
