Sydney leads the way for property price rises

Once you’ve secured that all-important investment home loan, the next step is to decide what to do with it. Choosing the ideal location isn’t always easy, but it’s a necessary stage to ensure you get the most out of your investment.

The Domain Group House Price Report is released on a quarterly basis and could give some valuable insight into what the market has in store. During the final three months of last year, it revealed the national median house price increased 2.1 per cent, while units were up 1.7 per cent.

There were also some decent results over the course of the entire year, as house values increased 7.1 per cent and units ended 2014 up 6 per cent.

However, there were some discrepancies across the country, which is why it’s so important for investors to carry out plenty of research. Sydney, for example, saw its house prices rise 4.1 per cent during the final quarter of 2014, while Darwin’s were down 6 per cent. It was the only capital to have recorded a fall in house prices during the final three months of the year.

“Within an environment of stagnant national economic growth, house price cycles are set to generally flatten in most capital cities with the exception of Sydney,” predicted Andrew Wilson, Senior Economist at the Domain Group.

“Further rate cuts, should they occur, will likely have a minimal impact on housing affordability.”

There’s already plenty of speculation about what the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will do at its next meeting on February 3. Some analysts believe the official cash rate will remain on hold, while others anticipate further cuts could soon be on the cards.

Minutes of the last meeting on December 2 pointed to below average GDP growth in the September quarter of last year, as well as a decline in mining investment. While there were some areas of the economy that performed better than expected, there were otherwise plenty of areas for improvement.