CoreLogic: Unsold property listings surge in Melbourne and Sydney

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By Leith van Onselen

As auction clearance rates continue to collapse in Sydney and Melbourne:

Unsold stock levels are surging, according to new analysis by Cameron Kusher from CoreLogic:

The volume of housing stock listed for sale is currently higher, for this time of year, than it has been in many years. While total stock is elevated, newly listed stock remains at fairly similar levels to recent years which suggests that it isn’t a dumping of stock onto the market which is leading to a lift in total listings, rather the fact there are fewer buyers and sales are taking longer to achieve.

At a national level, the rolling 28 day count of unique new listings shows an increase of 0.8% compared to a year ago with 51,246 new listings. By comparison, the 245,692 unique properties listed for sale over the past four weeks is 5.1% higher than a year ago…

Over the past four weeks, Sydney has had 7,743 unique new property listings and 31,859 unique total listings. New listings are actually -9.3% lower than they were a year ago and lower than they’ve been at this time any year from 2011. While new listings are at very low levels suggesting potential new vendors are reluctant to sell currently, total listings are higher than they were any year since 2011. This indicates that although fewer new listings are hitting the market, the stock that is currently listed is taking much longer to sell and overall listings are mounting as a result.

In Melbourne the number of newly listed properties sits at 9,714 which is -5.6% lower than it was a year ago. Like Sydney, Melbourne new listings are not substantially different to what has been recorded over recent years. The big difference for Melbourne is that the 38,730 total listings is 19.3% higher than a year ago and haven’t been as high since 2012. Fewer new listings highlights vendor caution about listing properties while total listings highlights the difficulty in achieving sales currently…

Overall as the housing market weakens and properties take longer to sell, the total volume of stock listed for sale is increasing.

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Earlier this month, CoreLogic also revealed a massive lift in vendor discounting across Sydney and Melbourne:

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Thus, unsold listings are swelling despite vendors lowering prices to meet the market.

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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.