Fewer sellers listed their properties in the market in January, with property listings across Australia falling 5.8% from December 2022.
According to SQM Research, national property listings went down to 215,144 last month. Despite the monthly decline, property listings were still higher than during the same month last year.
On a monthly basis, all capital cities, except Hobart, posted a decline, with Adelaide hitting the steepest drop at 8.7%
Compared to last year, however, only Darwin and Perth reported declines in total property listings.
Interestingly, old listings continued to rise over the past month. Old listings refer to properties listed in the market for over 180 days.
Hobart, Sydney, and Melbourne recorded significant increases in property listings in January.
On the other hand, Adelaide, Canberra, and Darwin reported declines in old listings on monthly and annual terms.
Meanwhile, new listings — or those listed in the market over the last 30 days — fell across most capital cities, down 19.6% monthly and 13.8% annually.
SQM Research managing director Louis Christopher said the declines were expected, given that January is traditionally a quiet time for listings.
“However, attention should be given to the new listings counts, whereby there has been a 13.8% fall in new listing activity compared to this time, last year,” he said.
“Most property owners believe it is a bad time mot sell right now and so are holding back, waiting for a housing market recovery.”
Meanwhile, there are very few forced sellers, as evidenced by the distressed property listings. Mr Christopher said this indicates that the market is under no great stress.
In fact, the number of distressed listings increased 3.6% from last year but declined 3% on a monthly basis.
“This is one of the reasons why I am a little more optimistic than my peers that, provided the cash rate does peak below 4%, the market will bottom and start to recover from middle of this year,” Mr Christopher said.
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