Housing market heats up ahead of spring selling season

Australia’s housing markets are showing signs of warming up in anticipation of the upcoming spring selling season, with new listings experiencing an unexpected surge in July.

Australia’s housing markets appears to be heating up ahead of the spring selling season as new listings make an unusual rise in July.

Data from CoreLogic showed that new listings increased 2.8% in July.

CoreLogic head of research Eliza Owen said this is an “unusual” rise, given that new listings historically trended lower through the month amid a seasonal winter slowdown.

“For the past five years, new listings have moved -3.6% lower from June to July. The trend has been especially notable in Sydney where new listings have moved 7.6% higher through the month, and in Melbourne where new listings moved 8.6% higher,” she said.

A more recent set of data from CoreLogic showed that over the four weeks ending 13 August, the number of new listings added to the Australian housing market was 3.3% above the previous five-year average.

This marks the initial instance where the influx of new listings has surpassed the five-year benchmark since September of the previous year.

Here are the highlights of the CoreLogic report:

• Compared to the same period a year ago, new listings are up 1.5% across the combined capitals but down 11.7% across the combined regional markets.
• Compared to the previous five-year average, new listings are significantly higher in Sydney, and Melbourne, up by more than 20%.
• Regional listing trends have not shown the same uplift — since the beginning of winter, the trend in new listings is up 4.6% across the combined regional areas of Australia, but holding 11.7% below levels recorded a year ago and 10.5% below the previous five-year average.

Total supply remains tight

CoreLogic research director Tim Lawless said while the number of new listings is rising across most regions, the overall number of listings remained tight.

“Since the beginning of winter, total advertised supply has reduced by 3.5% despite a 13.2% rise in the flow of new listings. However, more recently as the flow of new listings gathers some pace, demand hasn’t quite kept pace,” he said.

“The past four weeks has seen advertised stock levels edging 0.3% higher, led by a 2.2% rise in total listings across the capitals and offset by a 2.2% fall across the combined regional areas.”

Markets heating up ahead spring

PropTrack senior economist Angus Moore said it appears the property market activity is showing early signs of picking up in Sydney and Melbourne.

“In good news for sellers, conditions and home prices have picked up compared to the second half of 2022 — Home prices nationally posted the seventh consecutive month of growth in July and have recovered 2.8% since December,” he said.

Here are the highlights of the PropTrack report:

• The total number of listings for sale across Australia increased 0.4% in July.
• On a year-on-year basis, listings remained tight, down 1.3%.
• Melbourne and Canberra are witnessing an abundance of properties available for sale, exceeding the average of the past decade, while Sydney trails just slightly below this figure.
• Adelaide and Brisbane paint a contrasting picture, with the total number of listed properties for sale nearly 40% lower than the preceding decade’s average.
• In Perth, the situation is even more pronounced, with listings at a record low, offering limited choices for potential buyers.

Resource: yourmortgage.com.au