Property sellers in capital cities are wasting no time this year, clocking their busiest January since 2014 as new listings surged.

PropTrack’s latest data showed that the number of properties recently added to the market across combined capital cities increased by 55.6% monthly ad 15.9% annually.

These gains marked the busiest January for capital city markets since 2014.

Meanwhile, new listings across Australia increased by 24.2% monthly, recovering from the typical end-of-year slowdown in December.

Darwin reported the biggest yearly increase in new listings at 45.2%, followed by Perth (33.9%), Canberra (20.1%), and Brisbane (19.7%).

On the other hand, new listings were down across regional areas, 6.7% lower than in December.

Still, conditions remained favourable to regional buyers compared to last year, as new listings grew 11.9% annually.

Regional New South Wales posted the biggest year-on-year growth in new listings at 17.2%, followed by Regional Western Australia at 13.6%.

Only Regional Tasmania posted a decline, albeit only a marginal 0.3%.

PropTrack economist Angus Moore said the increase in new listings across Australia continued the busy conditions seen during the spring-selling season.

“The growth in new listings in January comes despite the Omicron wave — this is in stark contrast to mid-2021, when the Delta wave, and associated lockdowns, curtailed seller confidence in affected states,” he said.

“Sellers are wasting no time as they look to cash in on last year’s price growth and high buyer demand.”

Mr Moore said selling conditions are likely to be more robust in the coming months if no lockdowns were imposed.

In fact, the total listings were actually down by 4.6% monthly across Australia, with both capital cities and regional areas seeing declines.

This means that the available supply is still behind the strong demand for housing.

However, Mr Moore noted that some headwinds are already started brewing.

“While measures of buyer demand remain strong, record levels of new supply in the final months of 2021 have begun to ease buyer competition,” he said.

“Strong economic outcomes and rising inflation mean that rate rises will probably happen earlier than expected – potentially late 2022 or early 2023 – which may start to cool buyer appetite.”

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