Buyers in Sydney and Melbourne get more choice as spring approaches

The spring selling season has kicked off unseasonably early – but the real test will be if there are enough buyers to snap them up.

Richard Appleby and his wife Michel-Ann are selling their family home in Port Hacking in Sydney's south after 22 years. The property market has begun to heat up a few weeks earlier than the traditional kick off of the Spring Selling Season. Picture: Britta Campion/The Australian

The spring selling season has kicked off unseasonably early with a bumper number of homes being added to the market in recent weeks – but the real test will be if there are enough buyers to snap them up.

With spring traditionally the busiest months of the year for residential real estate, Sydney and Melbourne have recorded an early increase in the number of new property listings through July, with each city up about 9 per cent on last year.

The figures are a good omen for buyers in the market after a fizzer of a spring last year.

PropTrack economist Angus Moore said the encouraging signs were pointing towards stronger conditions.

“Last year was a bit unusual,” he said. “This year, conditions are looking relatively firm.

“We’ve also seen things like auction clearance rates holding pretty firm throughout winter, and certainly looking better than they were last spring. So I think there are signs that conditions will be different going into spring than they were last year.”

Property prices have been slowly climbing through 2023, with homes across the country changing hands at a faster pace than before the pandemic.

Auction clearance rates have remained firm through winter as buyers have proved willing to bid despite the interest rate rises.

Ray White figures show homes placed under the hammer through August drew an ­average of 2.9 active bidders, up from 2.4 last year.

CoreLogic head of research Eliza Owen said these measures might be encouraging more homeowners to test the market and give them confidence to make a sale.

“The thing that buyers have to contend with is higher levels of demand as well, and the rate of sales is still outstripping the rate at which new listings are coming to market. So it is a little bit more competitive,” she said.

However, the early uplift in listings has not been evenly spread. The combined capital cities have fewer homes on offer than the same time last year, dragged down by significant undersupply in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth “In other capital cities, we’ve seen not a lot of choice for going on three years at this point,” Mr Moore said. “Adelaide and Brisbane have been very tough conditions for buyers for a long time.”

Listing levels aren’t expected to spike anytime soon. Despite economic indicators appearing mixed, with lowering inflation coinciding with weaker wage growth, Ms Owen said the worst of the fixed-mortgage cliff had likely passed. That said, the risk of rising employment could affect the growth of property prices into the new year.

“There are areas of risk and I think we’re definitely not out of the woods yet,” she said.