Buyers compete for a historically small amount of properties for sale, resulting in greater clearance rates and greater prices in main cities. Instead of waiting for the so-called Spring selling season, sellers are encouraged to market properties while rivalry among sellers is small.
Nerida Conisbee, chief economist of the REA Group, says premium markets in Sydney and Melbourne are doing extremely well because of the small volume of properties available for sale. “If you’re in one of the premium suburbs, now is a great time to be in the market, You have all these buyers who seem to be fighting it out and vendors do seem to be holding off for Spring auctions and they may not do as well.” according to Conisbee.
Nationally, in July, there were just under 30k homes on the market, down 25 percent from a year ago. The listings for Sydney in July were down 32.5% year-on-year. Levels also dropped in Melbourne down 29%, Brisbane down 20% and Adelaide down 7%. According to Conisbee, clearance rates have not been seen since Spring 2016.
