December 2018 national residential listings sat higher than December 2017: SQM Research

National residential listings declined 9.2% in December 2018 to 328,203 from 361,619 in November 2018, according to SQM Research.

It noted that the stock reduction in all cities was expected during the festive and summer break, however, the decline in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra were larger than expected.

Residential listings were down on November in Sydney 17.7%, Melbourne 17.2% and Canberra 15.5%.

Hobart recorded the smallest monthly decline at 5.8%.

But compared to a year earlier, national listings were up 2.8%, with Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra’s year-on-year listings up the most - Melbourne up 25.4%, Canberra 19.3% and Sydney up 16.5%.

Hobart on the other hand experienced a yearly decline of 5.8%, with residential property listings dropping from 2,426 in December 2017 to 2,286 in December 2018.

Adelaide and Darwin also experienced yearly declines of sale listings at 4.1% and 2.9%, respectively.

(Source: SQM Research)

Louis Christopher, managing director of SQM Research, said listings in December had some large falls however, let us keep in mind there was a surge in listings recorded in November and that December traditionally records a large fall in properties for sale as this is a holiday period.

“Our view remains in place that prices will likely fall in Sydney and Melbourne over the course of 2019.

"We note however that Melbourne house asking prices increased during the month by 0.3% as did unit asking prices in Sydney 0.7%.

"I also note that national listings are now only up 2.8% for the year, indicating that regional centres may well have outperformed the major capital cities in 2018.”

Asking prices were a different story as capital city asking prices rose 0.4% for units to $571,600 but declined 0.9% for houses to $924,500, for the month to 31 December 2018.

The largest monthly rise came from Canberra, where house asking prices rose 2.5%. However, Unit asking prices in Canberra declined by 1.1%.

Sydney recorded the highest increase in Unit asking prices of 0.7% but the largest decline in House asking prices of 1.6% over the month.

Year-on-year asking price gains were the strongest in Canberra for both houses and units, with house prices rising by 3.4% and Units by 7.9%.

Year-on-year prices fell in Sydney, Darwin and Perth for both houses and units.

Brisbane and Hobart recorded increases in house asking prices but unit prices declined year-on-year.

This was reversed in Adelaide and Melbourne which recorded decreases in house prices but increases in unit asking prices over the year.