May home sale listings rise in ‘weak and patchy’ selling market

The lifting of bans on public auctions and open homes last month should help, but has yet to take effect, SQM Research says.

A rise in the number of new listings is expected in the coming months. Picture: AAP

The current weak and patchy selling market caused the total number of residential properties up for sale to rise through May, according to data firm SQM Research.

National listings numbers rose by 3.9 per cent last month to total 304,137 properties, with the number of available homes more than 10 per cent lower than the same time last year. The rise was largely due to older stock on the market failing to entice buyers and, while sellers were untempted to test the uncertain market.

Sydney and Melbourne each recorded marginally higher levels of new listings month-on-month. Properties listed for over 60 days rose 12 per cent compared to the previous month.

SQM Research managing director Louis Christopher said the lifting of bans on public auctions and open homes last month will inevitably aid seller confidence, but that has yet to take effect.

“Overall, it is a pretty patchy and weak market. When you look at the breakdown of the listing counts, you can see that the rise was predominantly driven by older stock staying on the market longer. There was a rise in the listings of course, but they are only marginal increases,” Mr Christopher said.

“Clearly, it's not a market on fire and there are not a lot of new sellers coming into the market. So, not a happy time for real estate agents who would be seeing fairly low sales activity, but it is not a market that is collapsing by any means.”

Mr Christopher expects a rise in the number of new listings in the coming months but warned the market is unlikely to return to the high levels of stock being recorded at the start of the year before the pandemic took hold.

“I still think overall it's going to be a relatively weak result compared to what we had been recording this time last year,” he said.

Weakness in May numbers was largely reflective of weaker inner-city conditions, with many of the new properties being listed coming from outer suburban areas.

Mr Christopher also said that housing stimulus likely to be put forward by the federal government to boost the economy is unlikely to be targeted to the existing residential market, meaning older stock is unlikely to be sold off any time soon.