Homes sold at lightning speed

According to the report, the median number of days a property was listed on realestate.com.au before selling in October was just 31 days, seven days faster than September and its fastest level in five years.

Buyers are pushed to act quickly when they find a house they like, as demand based on views per listing is at an all-time high in several locations.

Angus Moore, PropTrack economist and report author, stated that “high demand, combined with a lack of stock available for sale due to the impact of extended lockdowns, has created strong competition”.

Drilling down into results of the research, which compared data month on month, there was robust demand for properties across the country in October, with record-breaking high views per listing in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Canberra, as well as practically all rural locations.

Also, views per listing on realestate.com.au increased by 9.4 per cent in October to a new high and are now 46.4 per cent higher than at the same time last year.

In mid-October, search traffic surpassed all-time highs, rising 1.9 per cent from September. Areas that experienced exceptionally significant growth are Victoria, with an 8.6 per cent increase, and the ACT, with a 2.7 per cent increase.

When it comes to email inquiries to real estate agents, numbers remained at all-time highs, with house inquiries up 1.1 per cent, while units slightly decreased 1 per cent, and land dropped 4.2 percent. However, these figures are still three times more than what they were in January 2019.

Mr Moore zeroed in on the fact that the high demand and inquiries did not remain as leads but were converted to sales.

As proof, this year’s sales volumes are significantly greater than in 2019 or 2020, with total sales up 45 per cent from the same period last year. Weekly sales volumes have hit their greatest level this year at the end of October, increasing 14 per cent month-on-month.

Some of the key metrics, such as inquiries from first home buyers and searches by bedroom, have experienced a slight drop but remained high overall.

For example, first-time buyers’ interest is still high, but it fell short of its peak in September, with inquiries down 2.4 per cent.

Property searches for three bedrooms or more have also decreased marginally over the last year but still account for 66.4 per cent of all filtered searches on realestate.com.au in major cities.

The report author also weighed in on changes happening in the property market that might affect buyer and investor behaviour in the coming months:

“The surge in prices we’ve seen over the past year will likely start to ease given the benefits of lower mortgage rates are likely already baked into prices. We’re also facing some emerging, though distant, headwinds. 

“The banking regulator APRA has tightened how banks conduct serviceability, which will reduce the maximum amount some buyers can borrow, and the RBA has flagged that interest rate rises – while still a way off – may come a little sooner than previously expected.”

Despite this, Mr Moore retained a positive outlook on the property market, believing that “these changes are likely to have only a small impact for now, and we’d expect to see strong selling conditions continue through to the end of the year and into 2022”.