Property prices fell in every capital city except Canberra last month but, despite home values dropping 0.5 per cent nationally in April, CoreLogic says the pace of decline is slowing.

Key points: Home prices fell an average of 0.5pc nationally in April and are down 7.2pc over the past year

Home prices fell an average of 0.5pc nationally in April and are down 7.2pc over the past year CoreLogic says the rate of prices declines in Sydney and Melbourne has slowed

CoreLogic says the rate of prices declines in Sydney and Melbourne has slowed Canberra was the only city with record housing prices, having posted a 0.4pc rise last month

The real estate research firm's latest data show that Sydney and Melbourne continue to lead the annual prices declines, with double-digit falls over the past year, including a 0.7 and 0.6 per cent decline respectively in April.

CoreLogic's head of research Tim Lawless said that a variety of indicators, such as mortgage activity and auction clearance rates, along with a slowing rate of price declines in the biggest capitals, show "housing market conditions may have moved through the worst of the downturn".

"The good news for home owners is that rate of decline isn't quite as quick as what we've been seeing over previous months," he told ABC News.

"Previously, both of those markets, at the end of last year and earlier this year, were seeing dwelling value falls on a month-to-month basis that were closer to 2 per cent."

Westpac economist Matthew Hassan agrees, noting that April's 0.5 per cent fall was lower than March's 0.7 per cent, February's 0.9 per cent and average monthly falls of 1.2 per cent over the three months before that.

"While much of the initial moderation in monthly declines appeared to be due to seasonality, the April update shows a clearer shift over and above seasonal variations," he wrote.

However, the most recent downturn that was concentrated in the two biggest cities now appears to have spread nationally.

Brisbane home prices fell last month and are now down 1.9 per cent over the past year, while Adelaide's market is stagnating.

Perth and Darwin continued their long-term slides, with no real sign of any improvement.

Regional markets, on average, have also joined the decline with a 0.3 per cent fall last month, and even the strong Hobart market that bucked the recent downturn seems to have flipped, with a 0.9 per cent slide last month.

Canberra was the only property market that recorded price gains last month and is also the only market where homes are still trading at record prices.

Decline may slow, but not end, in 2019: analysts

With the housing downturn continuing and recent official consumer price figures showing inflation is well below where the Reserve Bank wants it, markets and analysts are increasingly betting on a rate cut, possibly as early as next week.

Current market pricing considers a pre-election rate cut as a 45 per cent chance, with a rate cut by June seen as being much more likely than not.

UBS economist George Tharenou believes the scale of the housing market downturn, and its fallout in declining construction employment, is likely to trigger rate cuts, but that the real estate downturn is only about halfway through.

"The peak-to-trough decline in prices is circa 8 per cent, worse than the GFC, and near the largest for at least 55 years when REIA [Real Estate Institute of Australia] data for Sydney started," he wrote in a note.

"Looking ahead, we expect price falls to reach 14 per cent, causing a negative wealth effect on consumption.

"This coupled with circa record low underlying CPI, and a per capita GDP recession, we think compels the RBA to cut rates by 25 basis points in May (rather than waiting for unemployment to 'trend' up), and another 25 basis points in August."

However, unlike previous cuts, Mr Lawless does not see a rate reduction in the current environment leading to a real estate revival.

"If we do see the cash rate being cut I think we probably will see most of that being passed on to mortgage rates, considering how competitive lenders are at the moment," he said.

"Of course that will be a positive for the housing market.

"I'm not sure if that will be enough to stave off any further declines, but it may be enough to further slow the rate of decline."

Mr Hassan agrees that real estate values will not turn around this year.

"With demand expected to remain weak near term, prices are likely to see further declines through the rest of 2019," he added.

Mr Lawless said the election throws up other uncertainties that will affect the property market, with Labor's proposed negative gearing policy likely to put some further downward pressure on prices if enacted.

"You have to expect if you remove an incentive from the marketplace that would be an overall net negative and we feel that there would be some level of an adjustment in the market place and a lower level of investment activity," he said.

"Look at it from say a first home buyer's angle, less competition with investors and perhaps some further downwards pressure on prices would probably be seen as a very positive thing, considering affordability constraints in markets like Sydney and Melbourne are still quite pronounced even though we have seen values coming down."