Melbourne listings jump 8.3%: SQM Research

National residential listings increased by 3.3% in March 2019 to 354,459 from 343,190 in February 2019 as the market opens up for its first full trading month, figures released by SQM Research reveal.

All states experienced an increase in property sales listings over the month, with Melbourne experiencing the highest increase in listings at 8.3%, followed by Canberra at 6.3% and Sydney 5.9%.

Darwin recorded the lowest increase at 2.5% and was the only state to record a year-on-year decline of 2.2%.

Compared to a year ago, national listings rose 4.8%.

Melbourne recorded a huge increase of 24.9% year-on-year followed by Canberra with a 21.4%. 

Sydney recorded an 8.3% increase year-on-year.

Click here to enlarge

Residential property listings continue to accumulate, reflecting the ongoing capital city housing market downturn. The rise though, is mainly attributed to older stock failing to sell. While new listings did increase over the month, very low sales rates are exacerbating the overhang of older listings. Overall, the weight of listings continues to put downward pressure on asking prices as vendors keep adjusting their asking prices in order to meet the market.

Asking Prices

Capital City asking prices for houses and units declined by 0.3% and 1.2% respectively, for the month to 2 April 2019. Unit asking prices are now $563,400 and houses $908,200.

Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide recorded asking price declines in both houses and units. Whilst Sydney’s house price remained steady at $1,235,100 asking price, the city’s unit prices has dipped 1.7% over March to $690,000. Perth experienced a marginal growth in house prices of 0.5% but unit prices continue to decline at 0.7%. Canberra and Darwin are the only two states that recorded both house and unit asking price growth. 

Hobart is still outperforming all states in house price growth over the month, although only marginally at 0.9%. However, unit prices in Hobart have declined by 1.9% - the biggest decline amongst all states.

Year-on-year capital city asking prices also posted declines of 3.4% for units and 7.3% for houses. Hobart continues to show the strongest growth year-on-year for both houses and units with a 4.6% increase in houses and 5.1% for units. Canberra also experienced yearly growth of 3.1% in houses and 1.6% growth in units. Sydney’s 12 month decline is now 9.9% for houses and 5.8% for units. Melbourne’s house price also continues to decline at 7.3% but unit prices increased 1.5% over the 12 months to 2 April.

Click here to enlarge