AMP Capital Investors chief economist Shane Oliver says new housing figures "suggest that house prices have bottomed out", a change from his predictions earlier in the year of slight house price falls.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics house prices indices showed national house prices up by 4.2%, with the biggest increases in Sydney, up by 4.9 per cent in the quarter, and Melbourne, up by 5.2 per cent.
The median market forecast was for the house price index to have risen 2.0 per cent in the June quarter and to have fallen 4.9 per cent in the year to the June quarter.

Dr Oliver said the price index was down 1.4 per cent from a year ago "but a 4.2 per cent rise in the quarter is a pretty strong bounce."

"It's confirming the information from the private sector surveys, which all suggest that house prices have bottomed out for now and are on their way back up again. You can debate how strong it is going to be but the bottom line is that with interest rates remaining incredibly low and pent up demand for housing having increased over the past 12 months, there is potentially more upside here."

Dr Oliver said the rebound in house prices coincided with a slower than expected deterioration in the labour market and a more resilient economy.

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