(Bloomberg) -- Australia's property slump deepened in July, with housing prices falling the most in almost seven years.
National dwelling values dropped 0.6 percent last month -- the biggest fall since September 2011 -- as declines in Sydney and Melbourne accelerated, according to CoreLogic Inc. data released Wednesday. Prices have now fallen for 10 straight months due to a combination of lending curbs, stretched affordability and reduced investor demand.
Read more: Cracks are showing in property markets from Sydney to New York
As well as little prospect for capital growth in the medium term and higher mortgage costs, investors also face falling rents, which declined 0.2 percent nationally last month, according to CoreLogic.
“We can't see any factors that may halt or reverse the housing markets' trajectory of subtle declines over the second half of 2018,” CoreLogic's head of research Tim Lawless said. “The availability of housing credit has been a significant factor contributing to this slowdown.”
Nationwide, housing values have fallen 1.9 percent since peaking in September, though remain 31 percent higher than they were five years ago.
--With assistance from Hans Lee.
To contact the reporter on this story: Emily Cadman in Sydney at ecadman2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Marcus Wright at mwright115@bloomberg.net, Peter Vercoe, Chris Bourke
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