Melbourne ‘freeze’ drags national property listings lower

August’s national 6.3pc fall in property listings is largely due to the impact of Melbourne’s lockdown, says SQM Research.

The number of homes available nationally fell 6.3 per cent in August, largely caused by poor Melbourne performance. Picture: Andy Brownbill

The reluctance of people in locked-down Melbourne to put homes up for sale is behind a 6.3 per cent fall in national listings in August.

New data from SQM Research shows while all capital cities recorded a decrease last month, Melbourne posted the most significant fall, of 13.2 per cent, as stage four coronavirus lockdowns essentially halted property operations.

In Sydney, total listings were down 4 per cent over the month.

The fall in national numbers of 10 per cent year-on-year to August to just 293,053 available dwellings comes as the market would normally be gearing up for the start of the spring selling season.

Given the economic uncertainty caused by the pandemic, the average asking prices in capital cities also fell for both houses and units by 0.3 per cent over the month. The average unit asking price is now $564,300, while houses command $980,500.

Outside the major cities, most regional areas also recorded declines in listings. However, SQM Research managing director Louis Christopher noted this may be driven by demand.

“There was quite a large drop in new listings for the month, predominantly driven by the shortfall in Melbourne. The Melbourne numbers are quite revealing actually. It is reflective of the near entire freeze-up of the Melbourne housing market,” Mr Christopher said.

“As the Victorian state government is heavily reliant on property stamp duty revenues, there must be a significant state revenue collapse occurring.

“Elsewhere we continue to record falling supply in Australia’s regional areas. Our take on that phenomenon is that demand has boomed for regional real estate as more of our populations looks to remote living.”

Hobart recorded the second largest change, down 9.4 per cent, followed by Canberra (down 6.3 per cent), Brisbane (down 5.1 per cent), Darwin (down 3.7 per cent) and Perth (down 2 per cent).