Australia’s housing market is showing no sign of distress even as the benchmark lending rate rises to a seven-year high, with the number of homes on the market falling in August, indicating owners are under no pressure to sell in a falling market.

Residential listings fell 3.5 per cent to 228,295 and new listings – of homes on the market for fewer than 30 days – slipped 1.9 per cent, unusually for August, which typically marked the start of the spring selling season with an increase, SQM Research managing director Louis Christopher said.