Damp spring selling season for agents and owners

THE spring selling season has been disappointing for real estate agents and owners, according to three new reports.

While the data about the number of properties for sale and how long they’ve been on the market was slightly different, it all pointed to an overall slowdown.

SQM’s managing director Louis Christopher unveiled research showing nationwide residential property listings rose by 7.6% over November.

“The rise was driven by a 6.4% rise in old listings (stock on market over 180 days) and a notable 22.6% rise in properties being on the market between 30 to 90 days,” he said.

That clearly indicated the spring selling season has been a disappointing period for owners and agents, alike.

“As predicted, this year’s spring selling season recorded higher listings activity than 2023 with total listings up by 4.6% compared to Spring 2023.

“This was mainly driven by a rise in older listings.

“Clearly the housing market has slowed down, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne where we are recording lower vendor confidence as measured by our asking prices index which feel a further 0.9% for Sydney and 0.7% for Melbourne.

“Going forward, new listings are very likely to fall away in the lead up to Christmas with the typical hiatus period occurring between the 23rd of December through to Australia Day.”

While the first major auction weekend will likely be the 1st of February, the Gold Coast has its busiest period of the year in January.

CoreLogic also released data showing a much larger-than-usual for sale property pool.

“Sydney and Melbourne listings are now tracking 10.4% and 9.1% above their previous respective five-year averages, to be at their highest level for this time of the year since 2018,” CoreLogic’s Tim Lawless said.

“At the same time, purchasing activity looks to be winding down.  

“With more available supply and less purchasing activity, selling conditions have deteriorated through spring.  

“The combined capitals auction clearance rate has held below the 60% mark since mid-October, and median selling times are trending higher for private treaty sales.”

REA Group senior economist, Eleanor Creagh, said that despite a soft increase, Australian home prices peaked at $800,000 in November following 23 consecutive months of growth.

“While housing demand has remained resilient to persistent affordability constraints, we have seen the pace of home price growth slow since earlier in the year,” she said.

“This softening in growth has occurred alongside a surge in stock for sale, giving buyers more choice and reducing the urgency to transact.”