According to SQM Research, national residential property listings increased by 2.0% in August to 224,530 units, up from 220,081 in July 2023.
The rise was driven by an increase in new listings in most big cities as the spring selling season began. Weaker listings in regional Australia negated the rises.
Over the month of August, Sydney saw a 6.2% increase in total listings, led by a 10.5% increase in new listings. August saw the highest number of new listings in Sydney since SQM records began in 2009.
Melbourne saw a 5.9% increase in total listings, fuelled by a 12.6% increase in new listings. That was the largest increase in new listings in Melbourne since 2016.
In August, new listings (less than 30 days) increased by 6.9% nationally, adding 67,908 new property listings to the market.
Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra, in particular, exceeded the national average, increasing by 10.5%, 12.6%, and 22.2%, respectively:
Older listings (properties on the market for more than 180 days) increased by 2.5% in August and by 23.9% over the previous year.
A weak regional housing market was to blame, with most cities seeing significant declines in older stock in August:
Commenting on the results, SQM Research managing director, Louis Christopher, noted that confidence is strong across capital city markets, but weakening across the regions:
“The capital cities by and large are having a strong start to the Spring selling season. SQM Research has just recorded the largest counts of new listings for Sydney for any month of August since our records began in 2009″.
“Melbourne since 2016. And to date, we know the auction market is having a strong start in September with rising volumes and firm clearance rates holding over from winter”.
“Therefore, we now have two very separate markets in Australia”.
“Firstly, a stronger capital city housing market driven by very strong population growth rates and increasing confidence that we have reached the top of the interest rate cycle”.
“In contrast, regional markets are struggling. Driven by population outflows and uncertainty surrounding local regional economies”.
For now at least, the strong lift in listings has been absorbed by strong population-driven housing demand.
In turn, home values continue to rise; albeit at a slightly slower pace than a few months back.
