Melbourne and Sydney home prices edged lower again last week, further suggesting regulatory intervention is helping to cool the country's two hottest property markets.
Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane prices inched up, between 0.4 and 0.1 per cent, in the week to May 28, but Melbourne prices dropped 0.5 per cent to sit 1.8 per cent lower than a month earlier.
Prices in Sydney fell by 0.1 per cent, a seventh straight weekly decline that left prices in the NSW capital 1.3 per cent down over a month.
Nonetheless, Melbourne property prices have still risen 11.4 per cent in the past year, with Sydney prices are up 10.9 per cent in the same period.
Aside from two minor blips in Melbourne, home prices in Australia's two largest cities have been easing since shortly after the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority told lenders to limit higher risk interest-only loans to 30 per cent of new residential mortgages.
APRA made the announcement on March 31, and the week ending April 9 was the last in which both Melbourne and Sydney prices showed a gain.
There were 2,850 auctions across the combined capital cities in the past week, up from 2,824 in the previous seven days, and from 2,480 a year ago.
The average clearance rate across the combined capitals was 74.6 per cent, increasing from 73.1 per cent over the previous week.
Melbourne's preliminary clearance rate of 77.3 per cent was the highest.
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