Australia is facing a historic housing shortage – but some areas of the market are so tight that no homes have come up for sale in the past year.
Those seeking an apartment in South Australia’s Barossa, Yorke, or Mid North, for instance, are out of luck, as data from Domain showed that there hasn’t been a unit listed there in the past 12 months.
Those looking for a cheap house away from it all in the West Australian southern outback will also end up disappointed, as the tightest house market in Australia now has more than 90% fewer houses listed for sale compared to 2022.
“Those historical lows in the numbers of listings are something of a perfect storm, and it’s being felt all over Australia,” Hayden Groves (pictured above), national president at Real Estate Institute of Australia, told Domain. “While it’s causing a lot of pain for buyers, and people think it’s good for sellers, it’s hard for them both.”
Groves said one reason for the blockage in supply is that “sellers are reluctant to put their properties on the market as they can’t be sure they’ll find anything that’ll suit their needs to move into.”
“In the past, they’d just rent for six to 12 months while they looked, but now, with the crisis in the rental market, that’s not really an option, either,” he said.
In many cities, buyers and sellers looking to buy before they list were not faring any better.
In Victoria’s Geelong, there were 95% fewer units for sale this year than last. The situation was just as dire in Brisbane’s west, where apartment stock was more than 94% down on the previous 12 months, or in Brisbane South, where it’s fallen by more than 92%.
Those searching for a house in certain areas are also unlikely to find any luck.
In Brisbane South, there were just 51 new listings in the past month – that’s more than 88% down on the year, and 83% down on the prior month. It’s a similar wasteland in the south-east of Perth, with just 108 listings, down by exactly the same percentages.
Then Brisbane East experienced that same sort of shortage, with only 58 new listings, 87% lower than the prior year.
Brisbane agent Jacky Chu of Place Sunnybank saw firsthand the huge effect that’s having on the market. Chu was recently selling a four-bedroom house at 13 Frost Street, Mount Gravatt East. That house saw 160 groups of buyers – nearly 300 people –during the four-week campaign, with 100-plus people turning up at the auction. In the end, the house sold for $1.2 million.
“We’re seeing listing volumes down significantly throughout all our suburbs,” he said. “We’re seeing such strong demand for good homes, even despite the interest rate rises. There’s a lot of pent-up demand.”
Other cities, too, are just as affected by the crisis. Darwin only had 24 new listings for houses in the past month, 81% fewer than the previous month, and down 87% on the year.
Sydney’s tightest unit stock area, meanwhile, was Blacktown, where only 12 units were for sale – 87% fewer than last year. This was followed by the eastern suburbs, with only 33 new listings, down 86% year-on-year.
The tightest area for houses around Sydney was the outer west and Blue Mountains, where only 53 houses were for sale, down 86% down on the prior year.
In the eastern suburbs of Sydney, Anthony Birdsall, of Laing Real Estate, noted an acute shortage of apartments for sale.
“Considering the rise in interest rates, there’s a huge appetite to buy but not enough supply to satisfy demand,” Birdsall said. “That’s keeping prices buoyant and increasing.
“It doesn’t feel like it’s going to ease any time soon, either. Rents are still going up, so investors aren’t under any pressure to sell and owner-occupiers are holding back perhaps because they’re waiting for prices to rise, or worry they won’t find properties to upgrade, or downsize, into.”
There’s also a critical shortage of units in Adelaide South, where there were only eight new listings, down 86% on the prior year, while Hobart only has 44 houses for sale, down 87% down on the previous month.
House hunters would also find it hard to squeeze into the popular Sunshine Coast, where both unit and house listings were down 86% on the year – the same percentage as the Gold Coast.
It’s also tough pretty much all over in Melbourne, where there were only 167 new house listings in its south-east, down 85% on the year, while its outer-east had 91, down 84%. The inner east only had 30 units for sale, nearly 85% fewer than the previous year, and the north-west was 84% down.
In Frankston in the south-east, Mark Burke, of OBrien Real Estate, said there were just not enough listings.
“We have a big shortage of stock and that’s fuelling prices,” Burke said. “For every auction we’re getting at least two to four bidders for each property. I’m just scratching my head at the moment about why more people aren’t selling because they’d do okay on price.”
Sadly though, it appears that there’s little hope of much improvement in the situation in the short term, Groves said.
“With the stock at historically low levels, it’s even harder with the population now growing and more people coming into the country who’ll all need somewhere to live,” Groves told Domain. “We just can’t get supply into the market quickly enough because of the costs of construction. Everyone is having a tough time, and the government is struggling to find policy settings that will help.”
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