Sydney property market: the regions where price growth is starting to slow

Sydney’s booming property market is starting to come off the boil, with a slowdown in a number of regions set to give buyers renewed hope. FIND OUT WHERE:

Christopher and Christine Lawrenson have sold the Epping home they've owned for over 40 years. Picture: Toby Zerna

The red-hot property market has started to cool across parts of Sydney where price growth has fallen by half, with an increase in listings helping to pull the once skyrocketing sector back to earth.

New sales figures revealed prices continued to grow rapidly over April but the rate of increases was markedly slower than over March when values surged at the fastest pace in 32 years.

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Regions across Sydney’s north and southwest had the biggest moderation in price growth over the month, with price rises slowing by about 40-55 per cent, according to research group CoreLogic.

North Shore prices grew at an average rate of 2.1 per cent in April, down from 4.7 per cent in March, while Ryde growth slowed from 5.1 per cent to 2.6 per cent.

The market is in a transition phase. (Photo by Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)

There was a similar change in the northern beaches, where growth cooled from 5.2 per cent in March to 3.2 per cent last month.

And in the southwest region, which includes Liverpool and Fairfield, rises dropped from 2.2 per cent to 1.1 per cent.

The eastern suburbs and the Canterbury-Bankstown region were other markets experiencing a considerable drop in growth.

CoreLogic head of research Eliza Owen said most of the market was transitioning from “explosive” price rises to “strong growth” because listings were increasing.

The greater volume of properties up for sale was taking pressure off buyers to inflate their price offers and easing a sense of urgency that dominated purchasing decisions earlier this year, Ms Owen said.

More stock is helping the market cool down. (Photo by Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)

“There are more homeowners taking advantage of the strong market conditions and that’s giving buyers more choice,” she said.

Areas like the north shore and northern beaches are coming off the boil sooner because they had some of the biggest rises in listings.

“Historically, it’s the high end of Sydney’s housing market where growth slows first,” Ms Owen said. “Affordability constraints become a problem sooner and it starts to push people into other regions they can still afford.”

Buyers seeking more affordable locations partly explain the continuation of strong price growth in the Hills district, where values still rose 4 per cent last month — on par with rises earlier this year.

Christopher and Christine Lawrenson, who will be bidding at auction this weekend after recently selling their Epping house, said they’ve noticed the market losing steam.

The couple are hoping to buy a new home as well. Picture: Toby Zerna

The couple had put in a pre-auction offer for a home in the area but the vendors rejected it and sold at auction a few weeks later for $30,000 less.

“A few weeks ago it was difficult to find anything for sale,” Mr Lawrenson said. “Now there are more homes. Still not a lot, but better than before.”

The Agency’s Catherine Murphy said more upsizers and downsizers were selling, which was a change from earlier this year.

“The only homeowners listing before were those who didn’t need to buy back into the market,” she said. “In recent weeks, we’ve seen a lot of homeowners encouraged by the increase in sales. They’re now selling because they can see there’s more to buy.”