More homes on the market than at any point this year

A summary of properties currently listed for sale around the country indicates that there are a higher number of properties now on the market than at any other period across 2013.

The heightened volume of stock on the market could provide future challenges, should the amount of advertised properties continue to grow.

At an individual capital city level, new house listings are growing with an increase of 3.1% from last year. For units, the number of new listings is 6.8% higher than a year ago.

By looking at total listings available for sale, the results show that there is clearly a deficiency for houses when compared to last year with listings -15.6% lower compared to units which recorded a 3.5% rise.

Across individual capital cities, new house listings are lower than a year ago in Adelaide and Hobart and new unit listings are lower in Brisbane, Adelaide and Darwin. Total listings for houses are also lower than they were a year ago in all cities except Perth and Darwin and total listings for units are lower than a year ago in Sydney and Brisbane, but higher elsewhere.

Stepping outside of these broad trends, the sharp rises in properties available for sale in both Perth and Darwin is worth noting. However, something to keep in mind is that in late 2012 and early 2013 both cities enjoyed their strongest capital growth conditions. The latest RP Data Rismark results to October show that both cities recorded recent falls in home values.

Number of houses listed for sale:

• Sydney (15,535) is lower than house listings in both Melbourne (21,492) and Brisbane (15,566)

• Melbourne also has a higher total number of units available for sale (12,135) than those in Sydney (9,013).

• RP Data listings results highlight that the total supply of stock available for sale is lower than at the same time last year.

Cconsidering that sales volumes are around 20% higher than at the same time last year it’s no wonder that we are seeing upwards pressure on home values.

Lately we’ve seen listings start to climb and it will be interesting to see how this unfolds and whether they remain elevated into 2014, or, if we see moderation such as that recorded at the start of 2013.

The charts address the number of unique new and total residential properties listed for sale at a national level where over recent months it can be seen that there has been a trend towards a higher number of new and total property listings.

Currently there are 49,920 new properties listed for sale and 267,114 total properties listed.

• New property listings are at their highest level since the week ending 9 December 2012 and total listings are at their highest level since the week ending 23 December 2012.

• Although both new and total listings are currently at heightened levels, new listings are only 0.5% higher than at the same time last year while total listings are -10.2% lower than a year ago. Over the past four weeks, there were 30,997 new capital city properties listed for sale and 117,426 total property listings.

• 62.1% of all new listings were in the capital cities compared to just 44% of total listings. This is reflective of the stronger overall housing market conditions within capital cities and the subsequent fact that homes are selling quicker in these regions. Compared to the same time last year, new property listings are 3.5% higher and they are at their highest level since the final week of November last year.

• The number of properties available for sale is higher than it has been throughout 2013. The heightened volume of stock on the market could provide future challenges, should the amount of advertised properties continue to grow.