News wires are reporting that a new report from residential property data analytics business CoreLogic showed that property prices fell across every capital city again in January 2019, with the exception of Canberra.
Of course the holiday month is traditionally quiet for property sales and not too much can be read into the data, but the results continue a downward trend for major capital cities like Melbourne and Sydney.
Property analysts, economists, and media commentators have also all been revising downward their predictions for moves in the property market in 2019, with AMP's Shane Oliver reportedly now claiming Sydney's house prices could fall 25% top to bottom.
While The Australian Financial Review reported another professional analyst in Douglas Orr claiming that prices will fall up to 30% as banks are forced to change how they calculate homeowners' expenses as a result of increased regulation.
Both Sydney and Melbourne's prices have now fallen around 10% over the past year, with large variations from the average depending on whether you're looking at units or houses and across many different areas from outer suburbs to the inner cities.
The bottom line for share market investors is that falling property prices and loan growth are a negative for the banks like Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) and Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) that already face the prospect of rising costs. As such bank shares are likely to track sideways in 2019, unless property markets recover faster than expected.
