Interest rate movements take a few months to gain traction and have a very noticeable effect on property prices. It happened on the way up (with the big rate cuts through 2020 having their most pronounced effect on property prices in late 2021/early 2022) and there will be a similar lag again on the way down. Mind you in late 2021, the RBA did even more to extend the leg up in property prices by saying they won't be raising interest rates until 2024. That rather irresponsible announcement created a FOMO amongst potential home buyers, who brought forward their decision to get into the market, and pushed prices up higher still in the first few months of 2022.
The last time the RBA raised rates before this cycle was in 2010. Three rate rises back then only really took a hold on property prices in late 2011-early 2012. In the Melbourne suburb where I lived, I clearly recall entry level properties ripe for knockdown selling for $1.2m-1.3m in mid-2010, and very similar properties struggling to sell for $900k-1m in early 2012. But in back half of 2011 the RBA started to steadily cut rates again. Prices duly started to recover in the mid-to-back end of 2012, through 2013, reaching new highs by late 2014, when the cash rate reached a new record low. Of course we all know what happened next. The cash rate kept going lower and lower, until it hit 0.1% in Sep 2020, fuelling enormous speculation and price appreciation in property prices Australia-wide.
