Australian home values register largest-ever decline: report

Australian home values logged a largest-ever peak-to-trough decline of 8.40 percent between May 2022 and January 2023, according to a report released by property analyst firm CoreLogic on Monday.

The report said the result has taken the national housing downturn into new territory, breaking the previous record when home values fell 8.38 percent between October 2017 and June 2019.

According to the report, the new record-breaking price falls played out over a much shorter time frame of fewer than nine months, compared to 20 months for the previous record.

Australia's three biggest capital cities are responsible for the bulk of the decline, with Sydney home values leading the latest nosedive, falling 13 percent from their highest point.

Brisbane prices plummeted 10 percent, while Melbourne dwelling values dropped 8.6 percent from the peak.

The company highlighted that the main force behind the record slump is the recent cycle of rate hikes that have risen at the fastest pace on record, with a 300-basis point increase in the underlying cash rate over just eight months.

It resulted in a rapid reduction in borrowing capacity, lowering the amount buyers could offer for homes, and higher interest costs may be dissuading potential buyers altogether, said CoreLogic.

"Australians are also more indebted today than through historic periods of rate rises, with the latest Reserve Bank of Australia's estimate of housing debt-to-income ratio sitting at 188.5 percent," the company added.

Since May last year, Australia's central bank has launched a spate of consecutive rate hikes, pushing the rate to a decade-high of 3.1 percent.

As the cash rate is likely to see further increases, CoreLogic predicted that the housing market conditions are expected to remain soft over the coming months.