There was something unusual in the housing market in September and it was the decline in property listings, figures from SQM Research show.
Property listings declined by 4% in the month to 312,754. Compared to a year ago, listings in September were down by 6.9%.
All states experienced a decrease in property sales listings over the month, with Hobart recording the highest decline at 6.4% followed by Melbourne and Perth, both with a 5.8% fall. Sydney was not far behind with a 5.7% decrease. On an annual basis, Sydney reported the most significant fall at 20.4%.
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SQM Research managing director Louis Christopher called the decline “abnormal”.
"Listings normally rise for the first month of the spring selling season. New listings did rise — it just that older listings recorded a large decline. It suggests stock is being absorbed at a quicker rate," he said.
Christopher said Sydney appears to be entering a new housing boom given the fall in listings, the rise in auction clearance rates, and the jump in asking prices.
"Melbourne is not that far behind the mark as well. I think we can expect to record rapid rises in dwelling prices for our two largest cities at least in the December quarter and likely beyond," he said.
Also read: Could recent growth trigger a boom?
Capital City asking prices increased marginally both for houses and units, up by 1.5% to $942,400 and 1.4% to $568,300, respectively. Compared to a year ago, capital city asking prices posted declines of 0.1% for houses and 0.7% for units.
A separate report by CoreLogic shows that Sydney and Melbourne reported gains in prices over the past month. The two capital cities witnessed a 1.7% growth in prices, clocking their fourth consecutive months of growth.
CoreLogic research director Tim Lawless said Sydney and Melbourne appear to be showing positive signs over the recent months and could be headed to “boom-time” conditions.
"I'd like to see more than just two months of that trend before I'd be calling that the marketplace is back into significant growth phase, but the indicators are showing that's where it's heading," he said.
