Higher market exposure: it’s taking longer to close home sales

CONVEYANCERS have backed new research showing a major increase in the time it takes to sell a house, with practitioners saying the blowout is worsening industry pressures.

According to new research from SQM Research, housing stock on the market for more than 180 days is now 16 per cent higher than a year ago, while new listings are slightly below last year.

In properties on the market for one to six months, the sale time is up 41 per cent on a year ago, the research found.

Paramount Conveyancing principal Sasha Obeid said the data fitted with the situation on the ground in Melbourne.

“We’re finding vendors are taking a lot longer to sell if they’re selling at all, a lot of vendors are pulling their houses off the market as well,” Obeid said.

She said the longer sale times kicked in a few months ago, with vendors in many cases now taking months to get a sale done.

By contrast, a sale used to typically take a couple of weeks to a month.

“They’d sell within 30 days, most of them,” she said. “But now we’re barely seeing that.”

In Western Australia, REIWA also reported longer sale times.

The peak body said the average house in Perth sold in 27 days in October, one day slower than September and 19 days slower than a year ago.

Units, meanwhile, sold in a median of 28 days, five days slower than September and 20 days slower than the previous year.

REIWA President Rob Mandanici told Australian Conveyancer the Perth property market had experienced a significant shift this year.

The shift accelerated recently, with Perth logging a slow start to the spring selling season, with sales down 26.7% compared to October 2025.

“In terms of the time to sell a property, this time last year Perth was experiencing very unique conditions. Strong demand, coupled with a shortage of new listings, saw the median time to sell a home drop to around a week,” Mandancini said.

“We don’t expect the time on market to return to those timeframes, even when market conditions improve.”

He said changes in consumer sentiment, driven by rising interest rates and the cost of living, were driving lower buyer demand.

On outlook, he said REIWA did not expect a pick-up in activity, and shorter sale times, until interest rates stabilised or declined, potentially in the second half of next year.