Sydney Property Listings Drop to Record Low

By Louis Christopher on 13 Feb 2014
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The number of Australian residential property listings rose during January, after a quiet period over Christmas.

Nationally, stock on market came to a total of 342,157 – a monthly rise of 1.3 per cent.

Sydney and Melbourne were the only two capital cities to record falls for the month; falling by 3.4 per cent and 1.9 per cent respectively.

Sydney has now recorded the lowest number of residential property listings since the inception of the SQM stock on market index back in April 2008.  

The previous lowest point was back in January 2010, when Sydney recorded 20,687 listings.

“Vendors of Sydney’s houses have raised their asking prices on average by 11.0 per cent since last year.”

Meanwhile, Melbourne is now recording steadily decreasing residential property listings. Stock levels were down 3.4 per cent for the month and are now down 5.4 per cent compared to levels recorded in January 2013.

Conversely, Darwin has recorded a 23.1 per cent increase in stock levels since this time last year (January 2013), which is likely signalling a slowdown in the Darwin housing market.

Over the course of early 2009 through to early 2010, Sydney house prices rose by 19.6 per cent. Sydney real estate listings were higher at that time than what they are now. This is one of the primary pieces of evidence as to why we have been so bullish on the Sydney market for this year.

SQM Research’s Asking Price Index

SQM Research’s Asking Prices Index has revealed that vendors of Sydney’s houses have raised their asking prices on average by 11.0 per cent since the same month last year and by 4.6 per cent for units.

This is the highest result of all capital cities around the country over the last 12 months, once again strengthening SQM Research’s prediction that dwelling prices will rise by 15 to 20 per cent in Sydney during 2014.

“Sydney and Melbourne were the only two capital cities to record falls for the month…”

The average asking price of a house in Sydney has been recorded at $967,800 this week, remaining quite close to the one million dollar mark. This will be something to watch for in the coming months.

No capital cities have recorded extremely low results over the past 12 months, although we note that the asking prices for houses in Canberra have only lifted by 0.4 per cent since this time last year. Units have actually fallen by 2.5 per cent.

About the Author

SQM Research is an independent property advisory and forecasting research house which specialises in providing accurate property related advice, research and data to financial institutions, property developers and real estate investors. It is founded and run by one of the country's most recognised and respected property analysts, Louis Christopher.

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