Homebuyers have been involved in markets across Australia, using buying up and depleting stock levels of properties for sale to make the most of favorable lending conditions. SQM Research’s latest figures show listings nationally dropped by 12 percent in December compared to the same time a year ago. Both capital cities reported declines in property listings over the month, with Sydney’s highest decline of 28.7%, closely followed by Canberra’s decline of 28.1%.
Year-on-year listings also show similar declines for all capital cities with a significant decline of 30.1 percent in Sydney. The stock shortage has caused a rise in demand rates, with the national average rising in December by 2.4 percent for houses and 0.8 percent for units. Louis Christopher, Managing Director of SQM Research said, “the month of December traditionally records falls in properties listed for sale as it is the start of the festive and summer holiday period, whilst November shows a surge in listings as vendors are keen to sell before the holiday season approaches.
Realestate.com.au data shows a surge in buyers looking for properties in many states, with Brisbane recording a 63 percent search jump, NSW 50 percent and Victoria 36 percent year-on-year to December. Overall, for houses, Melbourne reported the highest price increase of 4.2 percent, but the unit market declined by 0.6 percent. The median house asking price for Melbourne has now reached over a million dollars back.
The last time that this occurred was in the period from April to June 2018. A Melbourne house’s median asking price currently stands at $1.027.600. According to analysts and mortgage agents, that trend will continue into the early months of 2020, which will cause more vendors to list their properties for sale. “When people get confident that the market has turned around and they can see the demand there, then the listings pick up,” AMP Capital’s chief economist Shane Oliver says.
