2019.03.1821:10:00UTC+00Australia House Price Index Sinks 2.4% In Q4

House prices in Australia were down 2.4 percent on quarter in the fourth quarter of 2018, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday - coming in at A$6.677 trillion.

That missed expectations for a fall of 2.0 percent following the 1.5 percent decline in the three months prior.

The capital city residential property price indexes fell in Sydney (-3.7 percent), Melbourne (-2.4 percent), Brisbane (-1.1 percent), Perth (-1.0 percent), Canberra (-0.2 percent) and Darwin (-0.6 percent) and rose in Hobart (+0.7 percent) and Adelaide (+0.1 percent) on a quarterly basis.

On a yearly basis, house prices sank 5.1 percent - again missing forecasts for a drop of 5.0 percent following the 1.9 percent contraction in the previous three months.

Annually, residential property prices fell in Sydney (-7.8 percent), Melbourne (-6.4 percent), Darwin (-3.5 percent), Perth (-2.5 percent) and Brisbane (-0.3 percent) and rose in Hobart (+9.6 percent), Canberra (+1.8 percent) and Adelaide (+1.5 percent).