Property values in Sydney suburbs have been diminishing by roughly the price of a smashed avocado breakfast every hour.
Newly published figures showed median house prices in parts of these areas dropped by more than A$200,000 (NZ$212,000) over the past year, a fall of A$500-plus a day.
This equated to a drop of at least A$20 every hour, roughly the price of an Aussie cafe favourite, smashed avocado on toast and coffee, a meal once at the centre of the housing affordability debate.
Sydney waterfront suburb Russell Lea had the biggest drop in prices over the past year, with houses in the area losing A$1300 in value every day, data showed.
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Prices in Glebe, close to Sydney CBD, fell at a similar rate of A$1246 per day, while price falls in Croydon and Concord West, in the city's inner-west, were about A$1100 per day.
Values in Parramatta, in the city's west, dropped by an average rate of about A$993 per day, totalling about A$362,000 for the year.
Price reductions in these areas were much larger than in other Sydney regions due to higher rates of home building, property experts said.
The surge in sales gave buyers more properties to choose from and allowed them to negotiate better prices with sellers.
CoreLogic analyst Cameron Kusher said weakening demand from property investors, who have often struggled to get financing from banks, also thinned buyer competition for sales.
“Serious sellers are finding they have to keep cutting their prices,” he said.
Demographer and KPMG analyst Bernard Salt, who triggered a debate about housing in 2016 when he warned that millennials would never save home deposits if they kept ordering expensive avo breakfasts, welcomed the drop in prices.
“Back then it was clear that prices were moving away from the younger generation and smashed avo caught the Zeitgeist of the time,” Mr Salt said.
“Now the situation seems to be in reverse and (buying) is getting easier.”
Plummeting prices have reopened much of Sydney to new groups of buyers, with mortgage data showing first home buyers have clawed their way back into contention for sales.
First home buyers accounted for about 18.3 per cent of all housing loans issued in November, a six-year high, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
First-time buyers had been behind just 12 per cent of purchases in 2014.
- news.com.au
