Sellers racing to beat the competition – in a falling market already padded by properties that failed to sell in spring last year – have pushed up the volume of residential listings in parts of Sydney and Melbourne more than 50 per cent on last year, CoreLogic data shows.

As many as 16,579 properties were listed for sale in the broader Sydney market in the four weeks to January 19, up 6.7 per cent from the same period last year and 8.2 per cent higher than the previous five-year average, the CoreLogic figures show.