Residential property prices in Australia fell 0.7 percent on quarter in the first three months of 2018, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday.
That beat forecasts for a decline of 1.0 percent following the 1.0 percent increase in the previous three months.
On a yearly basis, house prices climbed 2.0 percent - again exceeding expectations for an increase of 1.7 percent after spiking 5.0 percent in the three months prior.
The total value of residential dwellings in Australia was A$6,913,636.6 million at the end of the March quarter 2018, falling A$22,498.3 million over the quarter.
The mean price of residential dwellings fell A$5,100 to A$687,700 and the number of residential dwellings rose by 40,600 to 10,052,600 in the March quarter 2018.
The price index for residential properties for the weighted average of the eight capital cities fell 0.7 percent in the March quarter 2018. The index rose 2.0 percent through the year to the March quarter 2018.
The capital city residential property price indexes fell in Sydney (-1.2 percent), Melbourne (-0.6 percent), Perth (-0.9 percent), Brisbane (-0.6 percent) and Darwin (-1.1 percent) and rose in Hobart (+4.3 percent), Adelaide (+0.5 percent) and Canberra (+0.9 percent).
Annually, residential property prices rose in Hobart (+14.1 percent), Melbourne (+6.2 percent), Canberra (+3.8 percent), Adelaide (+2.6 percent) and Brisbane (+1.6 percent) and fell in Darwin (-6.5 percent), Perth (-1.5 percent) and Sydney (-0.5 percent).
"Regulatory changes and tighter lending conditions have continued to affect investors, who are more active in the Sydney and Melbourne property markets. These cities have seen strong price growth over recent years particularly in detached dwellings," ABS Chief Economist Bruce Hockman said.
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