Australia's housing market stabilizes in 1st quarter of 2012

SYDNEY, April 2 (Xinhua) -- Home values in Australia's capital city rose 0.2 percent in March, leaving the market flat for the first quarter of 2012, according to the RP Data-Rismark Home Value Index released on Monday.

The survey, conducted by Australia's property information and analytics provider RP Data and global real estate funds management enterprise Rismark, also showed the best performing capital city over the quarter was Hobart, with a 7.3 percent rise in home values.

RP Data's research director Tim Lawless said the Sydney housing market had been the primary growth driver over the March quarter.

"Looking at the quarterly results on a more granular basis,the improved conditions over the March quarter can largely be attributed to the performance of Australia's largest housing market, Sydney, where values rose 1.1 percent over the quarter," he said in a statement on Monday.

"Values were down across many of the other capital cities over the quarter with the most significant drop recorded in Adelaide where dwelling values were down 1.5 percent," Lawless said.

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