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House prices up 0.8pc for Sept quarter

Steven DeareAAP
Property prices climbed 0.8 per cent for the September quarter.
Camera IconProperty prices climbed 0.8 per cent for the September quarter.

Prices of homes climbed 0.8 per cent for the September quarter, with all capital cities except Melbourne notching gains.

Sydney saw the biggest rise of one per cent, followed by Brisbane at 1.5 per cent, according to a weighted index used in Australian Bureau of Statistics data released on Tuesday.

Melbourne prices fell 0.3 per cent as the city was at the time still under restrictions to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

After Sydney and Brisbane, Perth had the next highest gains of 1.4 per cent on the weighted index, then Adelaide at 1.6 per cent.

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Canberra was up 0.9 per cent, Hobart rose 1.2 per cent and Darwin increased by 0.8 per cent.

The index is weighted by factors including a region's importance to the national index.

The 0.8 per cent gain is a contrast to the drop of 1.8 per cent for the June quarter.

Coronavirus restrictions in NSW and Victoria limited the size of auctions and the number of people who could visit a home at one time.

ABS prices statistics head Andrew Tomadini said the September results for Sydney and Brisbane were in line with expectations.

Lending to homebuyers, auction clearance rates and sales all rose during the quarter, the ABS said.

CommSec chief economist Craig James said the data showed Australia's economy was firmly in recovery mode.

Yet jobs data would show whether the recovery was generating the level of growth required, he said.

The median price for a house in Sydney was $930,000. The median price in Melbourne was $700,000, Brisbane was $550,000, Adelaide $495,000, Perth $490,000, Hobart $507,800.

Darwin's median was listed as $599,000 and Canberra's as $750,000.

The ABS noted a substantial fall in sales in Darwin during the quarter, and used broader data to calculate the figure.

Residential property prices have climbed by 4.5 per cent for the 12 months to the September quarter.

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