Sydney property boom continues in lockdown but there are regions where once rampant price growth is slowing

Sydney’s extended lockdown has had a mixed effect on the housing market – some areas have continued to boom while once runaway price growth in other pockets has begun to slow.

Most parts of Sydney’s housing market have continued to boom despite the city’s extended lockdown – but there are pockets where runaway growth in prices has slowed.

City regions where prices are poised to continue marching upwards, despite the lockdown restrictions and tense economic environment, included the northern beaches and eastern suburbs.

Buyer demand in these regions continues to outweigh housing supply and competition for listings remains tight, sales data showed.

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Other regions where growth has continued at much the same pace as earlier this year included the Sutherland Shire and St George area.

Conditions have been different in parts of the north shore, Ryde area, Blacktown and Central Coast, where a bump in listings and softer demand has helped cool the local markets.

CoreLogic data showed prices have still been growing in these areas but at nowhere near the pace recorded earlier this year.

Daniel Mortensen and Julie Davaine, with daughter Margaux, 1, at the Bondi unit they are selling mid-lockdown. Picture: Justin Lloyd

The slowdown was most apparent in the Blacktown region, where prices ballooned by an average of 3 per cent in March but slowed to 1.6 per cent in June. Preliminary indicators suggested a further slowing would occur in July.

The Blacktown LGA also had the largest increase real estate listings over June, figures from Ray White showed.

Ray White chief economist Nerida Conisbee said the bump in listings would take some of the pressure off buyers to offer higher prices.

There was a similar trend in Ryde, where June growth was half the level recorded in March. This region also had a surge in listings, particularly for units in the suburb of Eastwood.

Ms Conisbee said pockets where listings were increasing often had a higher number of landlords letting go of their rental properties after struggling for months to find a tenant.

“Vacancies are still relatively high in some regions and (tenant) demand is weak,” she said, adding this was partly due to fewer international students.

My Housing Market economist Andrew Wilson said the most competitive housing markets were losing listings – particularly during the lockdown.

“There are challenges for sellers when listing during these restrictions and there would be some putting it off until after (lockdown) ends,” he said.

“For buyers, that drop in listings may increase the sense of FOMO. There are still ways to purchase and the industry has adapted with things like online auctions, but there is not much available.”

Bondi resident Julie Davaine said the lack of listings in her area prompted her to put her unit on Fletcher St up for sale with agent Clay Brodie of Ray White-Woollahra.

“We’ve been looking for our next home and there is not much available so everything sells quickly,” she said. “We realised it is still a good time to sell.”

Mr Brodie said there was an expectation from some buyers that the market would flare up after lockdown.

“When we went into the first lockdown last year, we didn’t know if there would be light at end of tunnel,” Mr Brodie said.

“Now, with vaccines, we know there is a way out of things, even if it will take some time. That means the market will keep moving and buyers saw the big growth in prices after last lockdown and sense there is no point in waiting.”

Originally published as Sydney property boom continues in lockdown but there are regions where once rampant price growth is slowing