After a short and shallow downturn in the national Home Value Index, there was a subtle rise posted in February.

February saw a rise of 0.3% in Corelogic’s national Home Value Index with all capitals and “rest-of-state” regions recording a rise in values except Darwin (-0.1%) and Regional Victoria (no change).

Melbourne and Hobart saw the highest growth of the capital cities from the previous month. For Melbourne, this breaks a ten consecutive month streak of falling home values. Adelaide and Brisbane are still leading capitals in growth over the last quarter.

Regional housing conditions continued to show a stronger growth trend compared to the capitals in February, with the combined regional index rising 0.4% over the month and 1.0% over the quarter – compared to 0.3% for February and -0.4% over the quarter for the combined capital cities.

CoreLogic’s research director, Tim Lawless, said the improved housing conditions have more to do with improved sentiment than any immediate improvement in borrowing capacity. 

“Expectations of lower interest rates, which solidified in February, look to be flowing through to improved buyer sentiment.

“Along with the modest rise in values, we have also seen an improvement in auction clearance rates, which have risen back to around long-run average levels across the major auction markets.”