Property listings continue to recover

There was a rise in property listings in October, but stock is still well down on last year in some states.

Property listings increased 2 per cent in October. Picture: AP

The number of properties being listed on the market has continued to recover through October but still sits well below last year's figures in some states, according to property data analysts SQM Research.

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Total properties on the market rose 2 per cent in October from September to 318,874.

Vendor confidence saw new stock listings climb by more than 78,500 homes last month, primarily listing in Sydney (13,214) and Melbourne (16,351), with total numbers in the cities up of 4.2 per cent and 3.7 per cent respectively month-on-month. Every state bar Darwin recorded an increase on the month prior.

Listing numbers hit a historic low in July and have slowly been rising through the Spring selling season, which SQM Research’s managing director Louis Christopher said is a fairly normal phenomenon.

“Sydney and Melbourne have larger counts of new listings compared to this time last year, which should please real estate agents,” Mr Christopher said.

Yet, the improvement in stock levels was unable to hide the effects the downturn has had on the market. Figures did not recover enough through October to make ground on 2018, with total listings down 4.8 per cent nationally year-on year.

Sydney, with 29,977 listings, is still down 19 per cent on October 2018. While Melbourne has the highest number of homes available, it is still down 7.8 per cent with 36,122.

Rising stock levels has seen the asking price for homes decrease marginally by 0.7 per cent to $935,400 across all capital cities through October compared to the month prior. Unit asking prices were up slightly (0.3 per cent) to $570,100.

“Old stock still appears to be declining but remains at somewhat elevated levels. This may have made some vendors adjust their expectations over the month as asking prices in four of the eight capital cities actually fell,” Mr Christopher said.

House and unit asking prices in Brisbane, Adelaide and Hobart rose, while Melbourne, Canberra and Darwin each saw a decrease. Sydney’s median asking price for houses had decreased by 1.6 per cent but was up 0.7 per cent for units.

CoreLogic data released last week showed property prices were up 1.2 per cent nationally through October, while Sydney and Melbourne surged 1.7 per cent and 2.3 per cent respectively.