RICS Weekly Real Estate Comment - Template April 30

RICS GLOBAL REAL ESTATE WEEKLY May 1st 2009 www.rics.org Signs of activity firming in the Australian housing market • The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) meets on Wednesday • First quarter data on Australian house prices are released “Australian  th5 . The minutes of the last meeting indicate that the au-thon Monday 4 . The fourth quarter of 2008 posted a 0.8% thorities did have some reservations as to whether it was housing  decline leaving the drop in the headline price index from right to go ahead with a further quarter point reduction in the high water mark at just 4%. This is a relatively small market has  the cash rate. Although the threat of recession remains, adjustment compared with the picture in many other the likelihood is that the RBA will hold steady next week. fared better  economies around the world. In the US, the fall in prices is approaching one-third while in the UK and Ireland (see than the US below) it is not far off 20%. Within Australia, there are There are widely differing house price trends within the country widely differing trends in the housing market. While and UK   prices have fallen by close to 7% from the peak in Perth, in Peak to trough decline in prices, % change markets”  Adelaide they have only dropped by just over 1% and they are still rising in Darwin. 0  -1  • Significantly, there are anecdotal reports that the national house price index may have actually firmed during the   ...