THE PRACTITIONER'S COMPANION
Tuesday 11 February 2025

Auction boom as housing market remains buoyant

Analysts are forecasting a busy October and a surge in November as a mixed bag of influences come into play for the spring selling season.

2 min read
Cameron Kusher and Louis Christopher
Cameron Kusher and Louis Christopher

SPRING has sparked a flurry of auction activity across Australia’s biggest capitals and a record number of properties on the market.

Analysts are forecasting a busy October and a surge in November as a mixed bag of influences come into play for the spring selling season.

Sydney will see 1,056 properties go up for auction on Saturday, with an additional 295 set for the rest of the week.  Melbourne has 1,110 on Saturday auctions and another 144 during the rest of the week.

The total across the country stands at more than 2,800, according to SQM Research.

Managing director Louis Christopher said: “SQM is expecting a rise in listings for October and then a large surge in November.

“We remain confident listing level will be up this spring compared to previous years.

“Distressed listings activity remains benign which is somewhat surprising given the ongoing elevated interest rates borrowers are facing.

“The rise in asking prices over the month has somewhat reversed out the falls in confidence by vendors recorded over winter.

“The housing market remains patchy in our view but clearly there are active buyers participating, which is driving stable prices.”

According to PropTrack, new listings rose 2.8 per cent over the month and 10.1 per cent year-on-year.

That makes it the most active September for new listings since 2015.

Cameron Kusher, PropTrack’s director of economic research, says that while Sydney and Melbourne have been on an upward trend for over a year, other capitals have started to follow suit in recent months.

“New listing volumes have now been higher year-on-year in Sydney for 15 consecutive months, in Melbourne and Brisbane for six months, and in Adelaide and Perth for five out of the past six months,” he said.

The upswing in listings isn’t confined to the capital cities.

Regional areas also recorded a 4.4 per cent year-on-year rise in new listings, contributing to an overall trend of elevated volumes.

The increase in available properties has given buyers more options and more time to consider their purchases.

“The strength in new listings and the rising volume of total listings is affording buyers more time in their purchasing journey and contributing to a slowing of price growth,” Kusher added.

One area where we are seeing an uptick in interest from investors.

The volume of investor loans surged to $11.71 billion in August.

That’s the second highest level on record and a 34 per cent jump from a year ago, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

“There appears to be more investor loan commitments than there are investor listings coming to the market,” according to CoreLogic’s Eliza Owen.

“I would estimate that there are more purchasers for these properties than there are sellers, and investment property generally remains in pretty high demand.”

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