Housing sales picking up as rental squeeze eases

Sales activity across the nation’s residential property markets picked up in March, traditionally the busiest month in the autumn selling season.

Sales activity across the nation’s residential property markets picked up in March, traditionally the busiest month in the autumn selling season.

New listings jumped on realestate.com.au 10.5 per cent month-on-month, and prices have also recovered, encouraging more vendors to test the market.

The biggest upticks were in smaller markets of Adelaide, which was up 14.6 per cent, and Perth, which lifted 13.3 per cent, but the larger market of Sydney also leapt by 10.3 per cent, according to research house PropTrack.

Listings in Melbourne and Brisbane listings were behind but still up 8.8 per cent and 9.8 per cent respectively.

PropTrack economist Angus Moore said property markets had a quieter start to the year than was the case in 2022 and autumn was no exception.

“While new listings were up 10.5 per cent in March compared to February, the peak of the autumn selling season did not match the pace of autumn last year. New listings were down 15.9 per cent year-on-year. That slowdown comes after an extremely busy period in early 2022,“ he said.

The analysis showed the autumn selling season, and the start of the year overall, was slower than in 2022 when property markets were very busy.

But it found options for buyers have continued to improve and the total number of properties listed for sale nationally increased 5.8 per cent month-on-month.

“With the peak of the autumn selling season now behind us, we expect market activity will ease over the next few months, as it usually does after Easter and into the quieter winter period,“ Mr Moore said.

“While selling conditions are softer than a year ago, and market activity has slowed, conditions have improved from late 2022 and the fundamental long-term drivers of demand for housing remain solid.”

PropTrack’s analysis showed home prices increased slightly in recent months – a change from the consistent price falls seen through much of 2022.

“Auction clearance rates have firmed up a bit through the first quarter of 2023 compared to last year,” Mr Moore said. “The unemployment rate has remained close to multi-decade lows for the majority of 2022 and into early 2023. Wages growth, while running slower than inflation, has started to pick up. International migration has also resumed, which will further add to demand.”

At the same time there are some signs of the rental squeeze easing in parts of Australia.

SQM Research revealed that national residential property rental vacancy rates rose slightly to 1.1 per cent in March. The total number of rental vacancies Australia-wide now stands at 32,814 residential properties.

While the vacancy rates in Sydney and Melbourne remained steady at 1.3 per cent and 1.1 per cent respectively, there has been an increase in vacancies in Brisbane, Perth and Hobart.

Regional rental vacancy rates rose sharply in a sign of people coming back to cities, which has been reflected in the rise in capital city asking rents by 21.8 per cent over the last 12 months.

“The rental crisis in Australia’s regions has peaked with an easing in rental vacancy rates and rents across many smaller townships and coastal locations. This peak also extends to some of our smaller capital cities such as Hobart, where rental vacancy rates rose back over 1 per cent and rents are now down by 1.8 per cent for the past 30 days,” SQM Research managing director Louis Christopher said. “However, the same cannot be said for our two largest capital cities where the rental crisis rolls on, driven by rampant population growth, a slowdown in the construction pipeline and a return to the city office move from the regions.”