Listings surge as spring sprouts

Sydney reported a 6.2 per cent lift in total listings in the eighth month of the year, driven largely by a 10.5 per cent increase in new listings (old listings dipped 0.1 per cent). This marks the largest number of new listings entering the market in August since SQM Research records began in 2009.

Similarly, Melbourne, where total listings rose 5.9 per cent last month, reported its largest increase in new listings for any August since 2016. The Victorian capital’s increasing stock was facilitated by a surge in new listings, which soared 12.6 per cent in August, while the number of old listings arriving onto the city’s property market fell 3.1 per cent from July.

Total property listings rose in August throughout Canberra (10.6 per cent), Darwin (1.9 per cent) and Hobart (0.1 per cent). On the other hand, the number of properties available in Brisbane (0.2 per cent), Perth (0.4 per cent) and Adelaide (0.1 per cent) reduced in the final month of winter.

SQM Research managing director, Louis Christopher, described Australia’s capital cities’ start to spring selling season as “strong”.

“We know the auction market is having a strong start in September with rising volumes and firm clearance rates holding over from winter,” he said, adding how such trends have resulted in “confidence returning at least to our capital city housing markets”.

However, while metropolitan Australia is firing on all cylinders as spring approaches, Mr Christopher stressed the same cannot be said for the nation’s regional pockets, which is “best described for most regions as a dead market”.

Given the picture painted by SQM Research’s data, Mr Christopher assessed Australia as possessing “two very separate markets in Australia”.

Driven by rising population growth and increasing market confidence, Australian capital cities are flying heading into the warmer months, while regional markets, where population growth is declining and economic outlooks remain uncertain, are experiencing a very different start to spring.

The Reserve Bank of Australia’s decision to hold the cash rate for the third consecutive month at its September board meeting has been heralded as inspiring increased confidence within the Australian society that “we’ve reached the top of the interest rate cycle,” Mr Christoper said.

This, he reports, has been crucial in the listings’ increase through Australian capital cities.

Off the back of the cash remaining at 4.10 per cent, distressed listings dropped 1.8 per cent from July to August, with the national drop off driven by significant declines in Victoria (2.4 per cent), Queensland (3.4 per cent) and Western Australia (5 per cent).

However, distressed listings rose markedly in the Northern Territory (10.6 per cent), Tasmania (3.3 per cent) and South Australia (4.2 per cent), which may suggest some acute mortgage stress as well as potentially weaker state/territory economies.

With distressed listings ultimately falling from a national standpoint, Mr Christopher believes collective fears surrounding a fixed rate cliff are “increasingly overblown”.

“Provided unemployment does not spike, it appears now very likely there will be no forced selling on mass over the coming months,” he concluded.