Melbourne 'massively oversupplied' with September listing spike 'alarming': SQM

Sydney, with a 13% jump in fresh properties hitting the market in September, led the spring spike in residential property listings.

Across Australia properties listed for sale climbed 5.6% in September, according to data from SQM Research.

Homes listed for sale jumped to 383,287 in September from 362,793 in August across Australia.

The listings are up 24% on September last year, representing an increase of 74,805.

Sydney was the capital city to experience the largest monthly increase, climbing 13% to a total of 34,540 listings.

But Melbourne has a total of 49,613 listings after surging 11.4% in September.

“The Melbourne numbers are particularly alarming,” SQM managing director Louis Christopher says.

Properties listed for sale in Melbourne soared 65% from a year earlier, the most among Australia’s eight capital cities.

“It is possible the numbers might have been skewed by the October long weekend – in that listings were brought forward,” Christopher says.

“Still, it represents what I now regard as a massive oversupply situation for the city and I believe it will translate to further house price falls from here.”

An increase was to be expected given the normal seasonal rise in listings that occurs this time of year, Christopher says.

He notes that the rises recorded for Brisbane, Perth and Hobart were lower than anticipated.

“SQM are watching Brisbane and Perth closely as there may well be signs that we are closer to the bottom in that market than what we expected.”

The increase was to be expected given the normal seasonal rise in listings that occurs this time of year, SQM managing director Louis Christopher says.

The only capital city to experience a monthly decline in September was Darwin, falling by 3.3% (55 properties) to a total of 1,616.