Things however do not bode well for the north-west of Sydney.

"I'd suggest it will take a long time for unit values in that region to recover back to their previous peaks," Mr Kusher said.

"At their peak the median value of a unit in the Baulkham Hills and Hawkesbury region was in excess of $900,000 when you consider the distance from the city centre and the fact that house values are not that much more expensive it is not really a surprise to see large unit value falls in that region."

Apartment developers have flocked to the northwest region buoyed by the construction of the new Sydney metro, a fast train that runs as far as 50 kilometres from the CBD.

During the boom in Sydney which ended last year, prices of apartments there have soared along with prices in the rest of the city.

As for standalone houses, since the peak of their prices in July last year, prices in Sydney's inner city, inner south such as Alexandria, Waterloo and Zetland and the inner west such as Balmain have fallen between 10 to nearly 14 per cent.

Values of standalone houses in North Sydney and the northern beaches have come down between 7 to 9 per cent.


Even the eastern suburbs have been hit particularly after reaching such a high point over the boom, about 40 to 50 per cent in some cases.

House prices in the eastern suburbs have fallen nearly 5 per cent since last July.

Apartment values in Sydney overall, however have held strong mainly because of its affordability, Corelogic says.

Melbourne is the strongest housing market.

Since its peak last November, the worst hit housing products are standalone houses in inner, inner east and inner south Melbourne, where prices have declined between 4 and 6 per cent.

Elsewhere both houses and unit prices have fallen no more than 3 per cent.

In the year to May, overall house prices in Melbourne rose 2.2 per cent while Sydney's prices fell 4.1 per cent.