Melbourne assists capital city home values record modest growth in February: RP Data Rismark

Five of Australia’s eight capital cities have shown continued growth in their housing markets in February, following the mild recovery of 2012, according to February’s RP Data Rismark home value index.

The February 2013 figure shows a slight slowing in the capital dwelling values with a  rise of 0.3% following a 1.2% jump in January.

RP Data says Melbourne, Australia’s second largest housing market, largely drove the monthly result with dwelling values up 1.5% with even stronger growth at Canberra (up 1.9%) and Darwin (up 2.3%).

But Melbourne still remains in negative territory over the year.

There was a limited rise in dwelling values in Sydney, up just 0.1% in February, but up 2.7% over the year.

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Results for the past quarter have shown Hobart to be the best performing capital city with a 4.2% rise in values.

Darwin performed the weakest with a 2.5% decrease in property values, but showed the highest rental yields with a gross rental yield of 6.2% for houses and 6.3% for units.

 Melbourne showed the lowest rental yields with a 3.6% gross rental yield for houses and 4.4% for units.

 Sydney retained its mantle as the most expensive Australian city with a median dwelling price of $540,000, while Hobart proved to be the most affordable capital city with a median dwelling price of $310,000.