Australian home prices fell a further 0.7 per cent last month and are now down nearly 7 per cent from their peak, as the downturn extends beyond Sydney and Melbourne.

Key points: Sydney (-10.4pc) and Melbourne (9.1pc) have had the biggest prices falls over the past year

Sydney (-10.4pc) and Melbourne (9.1pc) have had the biggest prices falls over the past year Five of the eight capital cities have had falling prices over the past year, as has regional Australia

Five of the eight capital cities have had falling prices over the past year, as has regional Australia CoreLogic's Tim Lawless says widespread price falls are an indicator that lending restraints are dampening the market

The latest February figures from CoreLogic show Darwin and Perth are once again leading the monthly declines in prices, slumping 1.7 and 1.5 per cent respectively.

Sydney and Melbourne have still suffered the worst fall over the past year, down 10.4 and 9.1 per cent respectively.

Even the Brisbane market, which did not experience the same steep run-up in prices as the other two big capitals on the east coast, has seen prices fall over the month, quarter and past year, although the declines are modest.

Hobart was the only capital city to post an increase in prices last month, with a 0.8 per cent rise showing that its property boom has not completely run out of steam, although its 7.2 per cent annual increase is slower than its recent peak growth rate.

Prices in Canberra and Adelaide have been relatively flat over the past few months, and only modestly higher over the past year.

CoreLogic's head of research Tim Lawless says price falls are now extending well beyond the previously booming Sydney and Melbourne markets.

"Every market in Australia is losing steam," he told ABC News.

"We are seeing this downturn becoming quite widespread geographically.

"I think that's a real indicator that lending conditions are throwing quite a dampening blanket over the market entirely."

Units falling less than houses in Sydney and Melbourne

Aside from tougher home lending standards, Mr Lawless said there were a few other factors continuing to weigh on the property market in many areas.

"We've seen a lot of new supply coming into the market from newly constructed housing, especially in the high-rise apartment sector, we've seen a real slowdown in foreign buying activity and, of course, we're also still seeing affordability challenges in markets like Sydney and Melbourne, despite the fact that values have come down in Sydney now by 13 per cent and in Melbourne by nearly 10 per cent since the peak," he added.

However, while the supply of units is surging in Sydney and Melbourne, the bigger price falls were for houses — down 11.5 per cent in both cities over the past year compared to a 7.8 and 3.7 per cent fall in apartment prices, respectively.

That is in contrast to Brisbane, Perth and Darwin, where apartment price falls were much steeper than house price declines.

CoreLogic's figures show Brisbane apartment prices fell 0.9 per cent, versus a 0.4 per cent decline for houses, it was 7.7 per cent versus 6.7 per cent in Perth, while unit prices slumped 14.4 per cent in Darwin over the past year, versus a 0.2 per cent rise in house prices.

Fewer properties going up for sale as stock builds on the market

While there is a lot of new property for sale, Mr Lawless said owners of existing dwellings were becoming increasingly reluctant to sell into a falling market.

"We're seeing vendors, understandably, are quite reluctant to be putting their property into the market when selling conditions are quite challenging," he said.

"Compared to last year, the number of new listings being added to the market is down by nearly 20 per cent across the capital cities.

"But, because properties are taking longer to sell and we've seen buyer numbers fall by around 15 per cent or so over the past year it means total inventory levels out there are now very high.

"So buyers have a lot of stock to choose from, they can negotiate very hard and they can really take their time."

However, Mr Lawless said it would likely take further prices falls to equal out the balance between properties for sale and buyers for them so that prices stabilise.

"Probably somewhere in 2020 we'll start to see the market levelling out," he said.

"There's a lot of moving parts here, and if we do see interest rates coming down, for example, which seems more likely now than it was a few months ago, we might see a little bit of extra stimulus come into the market.

"But the big question there is, even if interest rates do come down, how much will we see the lenders passing those rate cuts on and how much effect will it have on the market?"