Australian housing selling at record speeds, buyers seeking more expensive property amid cheap loans

Homes are selling at record speeds as Australia’s supercharged housing boom continues, with buyers using cheap lending to buy more expensive property.

Australian residential properties are selling at record speeds while in short supply, with the average number of days homes are listed for sale on a popular website hitting record lows in every state in March.

According to the latest monthly housing indicators report by realestate.com.au’s owner REA Group, dwellings were listed for 48 days on average last month, down from about 60 days in January and 71 days in June last year.

Properties sold the fastest in the ACT – where demand has been buoyed by growth in public sector employment – at just 25 days.

Following close behind was NSW (27 days) and Victoria (30 days).

REA Group says average views per listing have also been surging, with every state hitting record highs in March.

Nationally, views per listing were up 6.1 per cent over the month and 106.8 per cent year-on-year.

With borrowing costs at record lows, buyers are seeking bigger, more expensive properties like this one in Alderley, Brisbane. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen/The Australian

The report’s author, economist Anne Flaherty, says the red-hot growth could be attributed to factors including record low borrowing costs, government support packages for first-home buyers and limited available stock.

“Buoyed by low rates, buyers are searching for more expensive properties than they were a year ago,” Ms Flaherty said.

“They are also looking for more space, with inquiries for houses and land surging, while demand for units has softened.”

The report suggests trends are changing, with more listings expected to be brought to market during spring and autumn, which are traditionally the most popular times of the year to sell, while investor activity is steadily increasing.

Investors accounted for almost 17 per cent of email inquiries to the website last month compared with 11 per cent during a trough in June when inquiries from first-home buyers peaked.

Ms Flaherty said first-home buyer queries had been trending downwards and were expected to continue to fall over the rest of the year due to rising prices and the winding back of government support packages such as HomeBuilder and the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme.

Houses are selling at record speeds due to short supply. Picture: Lukas Coch/AAP

The latest CoreLogic home values data released last week confirmed Australia was in the midst of a housing boom, showing national residential property prices jumped 2.8 per cent last month – the highest rate in 32 years – to fresh record highs.

At the same time, data released by the Real Estate Institute of Australia showed housing prices had soared by more than 500 per cent over the past 25 years, with the median price surging from $160,000 in 1996 to $825,000 in 2020.

President Adrian Kelly also said investors were re-emerging in response to a rising market, with further growth expectations and low borrowing costs.

But for renters, the bad news keeps coming, with pandemic-sparked rental eviction moratoriums ceasing last week and many landlords immediately jacking up rents.

In Perth, where the rental vacancy rate was just 1 per cent in February, evicted tenants have called affordable housing advocacy group ShelterWA for help in their thousands.

* REA Group’s biggest shareholder is the owner of this title, News Corp