House price downturn deepens beyond falls in Sydney and Melbourne | The Business | ABC NEWS

By ABC News (Australia)

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The downturn in the national housing market is no longer confined to Sydney and Melbourne, with Brisbane and Adelaide recording declines in house prices in July according to property data firm Cotality. Elsewhere, Perth managed a modest increase followed by a revised contraction in June. Analysts say three consecutive RBA interest rate hikes and government tax changes to negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount (CGT) have triggered the weakness in the property market. Economists believe the direction of property prices will depend on the trajectory of interest rates and how that affects mortgage borrowing and the unemployment rate more broadly. Cotality's head of research, Gerard Burg said he expects more vendors (or sellers of property) to start pulling back from the market as they grow increasingly hesitant to losing money on a sale. Former chief economist for NAB, Alan Oster, believes the property market weakness is more connected with rising interest rates than anythi

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