The fall in listings nationally has been driven by Sydney, where stock levels are the lowest since the SQM series began in 2008. Meanwhile, average Sydney asking prices for detached houses has hit a whopping $967,800! Buy hey, there’s no bubble.
According to SQM:
Sydney has now recorded the lowest number of residential property listings since the inception of the SQM stock on market index back in April 2008. The previous lowest point was back in January 2010 where Sydney recorded 20,687 listings.
Meanwhile, Melbourne is now recording steadily decreasing residential property listings. Stock levels were down 3.4% for the month and are now down 5.4% compared to levels recorded in January 2013.
Conversely, Darwin has recorded a 23.1% increase in stock levels since this time last year (January 2013), which is likely signalling a slowdown in the Darwin housing market.
Louis Christopher, Managing Director of SQM Research says, “Over the course of early 2009 through to early 2010, Sydney house prices rose by 19.6%. Sydney real estate listings were higher at that time than what it is now. This is one of the primary pieces of evidence as to why we have been so bullish on the Sydney market for this year.”
SQM’s Asking Price Index:
SQM Research’s Asking Prices Index has revealed that vendors of Sydney’s houses have raised their asking prices on average by 11.0% since the same month last year and by 4.6% for units. This is the highest result of all capital cities around the country over the last 12 months, once again- strengthening SQM Research’s prediction that dwelling prices will rise by 15-20% in Sydney during 2014.
The average asking price of a house in Sydney has been recorded at $967,800 this week, remaining quite close to the one million dollar mark. This will be something to watch for in the coming months.
No capital cities have recorded extremely low results over the past 12 months, although we note that the asking prices for houses in Canberra have only lifted by 0.4% since this time last year, and units have actually fallen by 2.5%.
To see each capital city break down, click here.
