MARCH KEY FIGURES

	Dec Qtr 14 to Mar Qtr 15	Mar Qtr 14 to Mar Qtr 15
RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY PRICES	% change	% change
Weighted average of eight capital cities	1.6	6.9
Sydney	3.1	13.1
Melbourne	0.6	4.7
Brisbane	0.4	3.9
Adelaide	0.7	2.5
Perth	-0.1	-0.3
Hobart	0.5	1.9
Darwin	-0.2	-0.4
Canberra	1.1	3.0

Total value of the dwelling stock	Mar Qtr 15
Value of dwelling stock(a) ($m)	5 468 467.9
Mean price of residential dwellings ($'000)	576.1
Number of residential dwellings ('000)	9 491.7
(a) all sectors

Residential Property Prices, Weighted average of eight capital cities - Quarterly % change

Residential Property Prices, Quarterly % change - March quarter 2015

MARCH KEY POINTS


CHANGES TO RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY PRICE INDEX

• The price index for residential properties for the weighted average of the eight capital cities rose 1.6% in the March quarter 2015. The index rose 6.9% through the year to the March quarter 2015.
• The capital city residential property price indexes rose in Sydney (+3.1%), Melbourne (+0.6%), Brisbane (+0.4%), Adelaide (+0.7%), Canberra (+1.1%) and Hobart (+0.5%) and fell in Darwin (-0.2%) and Perth (-0.1%).
• Annually, residential property prices rose in Sydney (+13.1%), Melbourne (+4.7%), Brisbane (+3.9%), Adelaide (+2.5%), Canberra (+3.0%) and Hobart (+1.9%) and fell in Darwin (-0.4%) and Perth (-0.3%).

TOTAL VALUE OF THE DWELLING STOCK

• The total value of residential dwellings in Australia was $5,468,467.9m at the end of March quarter 2015, rising $101,308.2m over the quarter.
• The mean price of residential dwellings rose $8,400 to $576,100 and the number of residential dwellings rose by 38,200 to 9,491,700 in the March quarter 2015.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE (QUARTER)	Release Date
June 2015	22 September 2015
September 2015	15 December 2015
December 2015	22 March 2016
March 2016	21 June 2016

CHANGES IN THIS ISSUE

A review of the Residential Property Price Indexes was undertaken in 2014 as a response to planned reductions to the ABS work program. The outcomes of the Review were released on the ABS website in a feature article in the September 2014 issue of Residential Property Price Indexes: Eight Capital Cities (cat. no. 6416.0). The implementation of the review outcomes is occurring in this issue.

In summary, the changes in this issue are:

• all Australian residential property sales data used to compile the price indexes and related statistics are now supplied to the ABS by CoreLogic RP Data;
• from the March quarter 2015 the suite of residential property price indexes are considered final;
• the method of calculating prices in the total value of the dwelling stock has been modified due to the change in timing of this release;
• the unstratified median price and number of dwelling transfers series are now being published up to the current quarter.

Further details about these changes are available in the Feature Article: Implementation of the ABS Residential Property Price Index Review Outcomes.


REVISIONS

From the March quarter 2015 the published index numbers are considered final. The September quarter 2014 and the December quarter 2014 indexes which have been previously published as preliminary have been revised and are now published as final in this issue.


CHANGES IN FUTURE ISSUES

A consequence of the changes to the index revisions process is the removal of Table 7, Revisions to Residential Property Price Index Series. This table will be published for the last time in the March quarter 2015 issue.

From the June quarter 2015, the Residential Property Price Indexes: Eight Capital Cities (cat. no. 6416.0) publication will be available from the ABS website in electronic format only. The March quarter 2015 release of this publication will be the final issue that contains a pdf version.


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