House prices are falling in Australia. That’s a good thing – if you believe housing is a basic human need

‘If dampening the demand from investors for the housing we already have reduces the rate at which house prices go up, that should be celebrated, not bewailed,’ writes Saul Eslake Photograph: Jesse Thompson/Getty Images

House prices in Sydney and Melbourne are down by 3.1% and 3.5% respectively, from their most recent peaks, according to the latest data from Cotality. Across Australia as a whole, house prices didn’t rise last month, the first time that has happened since January 2023. And the annual rate of house price inflation dropped to 9.5% from a most recent peak of 10.9% over the year to February.

If these reports were about any of the other 86 classes of goods and services into which Australia’s consumer price index is divided, they would be greeted with universal approbation, and the government would be claiming credit for “easing cost-of-living pressures”.