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Australian home asking prices on the rise

Asking prices rose 0.4 per cent for apartments and 1.5 per cent for houses in the 90 days to February 19 across the nation's eight major cities, the Sydney-based researcher said.

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Price expectations of home sellers are climbing across Australia as confidence of a recovery in the real estate market grows, according to SQM Research.

Asking prices rose 0.4 per cent for apartments and 1.5 per cent for houses in the 90 days to February 19 across the nation's eight major cities, the Sydney-based researcher said.

They are 2.3 per cent higher for houses than a year earlier and 1.6 per cent for apartments, the researcher said.

"A rise in asking prices suggests home sellers are becoming more confident of market conditions," SQM said. It also shows "buyers are bidding more aggressively for real estate".

Reductions in the Reserve Bank of Australia's benchmark interest rate to 3 per cent, a level matching a half-century low, have helped boost home prices across Australia. Prices in the five biggest cities climbed 1.1 per cent yesterday from a year earlier, the RP Data-Rismark Daily Home Value Index showed.

Online home listings dropped 13 per cent in January from a year earlier, indicating an increase in purchases, SQM said in a separate report this month.

Darwin apartments had the biggest increase in asking prices, surging almost 20 per cent from a year earlier. Detached housing in Hobart and Canberra remain favourable to buyers, with asking prices dropping 3.9 per cent and 3.6 per cent respectively from a year ago, SQM said.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Asking prices onrise Down Under
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