Home hunters across Australia enjoy more choice this winter, as the total supply of properties available for sale saw the strongest yearly increase in more than a decade.
This was revealed in REA Group’s PropTrack Listings Report July 2022, a monthly report analysing new and total listings on realestate.com.au to provide the most up-to-date view on property market supply trends.
The report found that the total number of properties listed for sale on realestate.com.au nationally rose by 4.9% year-on-year in July – the largest year-on-year increase since 2010. Month-on-month, total stock on market was up 0.6% in July, at a time when new listings typically decline amid seasonally quieter activity.
“Australia’s property markets are experiencing an unusually busy winter period,” said Angus Moore, PropTrack economist and report author. “While winter is typically seasonally quieter, the total stock of properties listed for sale increased 4.9% in July this year compared to last, which is the largest year-on-year increase since 2010. While that is in part due to the increase in stock available for sale this year and properties taking longer to sell, it is also partly driven by the fact that options were limited in July 2021, with a number of capital cities in lockdown.”
Sydney posted its largest ever year-on-year increase in total stock, with total listings up 30.7% this year compared to lockdown-affected levels in July 2021. The stock of properties listed for sale in Sydney and Canberra, meanwhile, was up by around 5% compared to the prior decade average, and around 2% below in Melbourne.
Regionally, it’s a different story, with total stock for sale sitting at around 40% below pre-pandemic levels despite a 1.5% rise month-on-month in July.
“Selling conditions have begun to temper from their very strong levels earlier in the year,” Moore said. “Measures of buyer demand have declined off their high levels, it is taking longer to sell homes,
and auction clearance rates have fallen. At the same time, buyers have had more properties to choose from in recent months. The wave of new supply coming to market over the first half of the year, particularly in Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra, has lifted the stock available on market and helped make conditions a bit less competitive for buyers.”
Moore noted that home prices have been falling in most cities after record-high levels in 2021. He also said that with the Reserve Bank raising rates at a brisk pace with further rate hikes expected over the course of 2022, prospective homeowners’ borrowing capacity will be reduced and will place greater downward pressure on prices in the near term.
“Further out, fundamental drivers of demand remain strong, with unemployment low, wages growth expected to pick up over this year, and international migration returning,” Moore said. “As we look towards the spring selling season, activity in property markets around the country is expected to pick up over the next few months in line with the typical seasonal peak in activity.”
Here are some additional report findings:
- Also experiencing increases in the total number of properties listed for sale in July were Melbourne (+10% YoY), Perth (+4.6% YoY), Darwin (+14.4% YoY) and Canberra (+24.8% YoY)
- Options in Brisbane and Adelaide remain more limited, as their total stock is more than a quarter and a third below pre-pandemic levels, respectively
- New listings nationally decreased 12.2% month-on-month in July, though it was a busier month than the same time last year, with new listings up 6.5% year-on-year
- All capital cities saw new listings down in July compared to June, which is typical for the winter period
- New listings in regional areas were also quieter in July, down 11.4% month-on-month, but still busier than is typical for the middle of winter, with new listings up 3.2% year-on-year regionally
