New property listings accelerate to an eight-year high

By Jon Bragg

April 19 2022
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The start of 2022 was the busiest quarter for new capital city listings since 2014.

New capital city listings surged by 16.2 per cent in March to close out the busiest first quarter in eight years, according to REA Group’s latest PropTrack Listings Report.

During the last quarter, new listings in Melbourne increased at the fastest pace since 2011, while Sydney recorded its fastest growth in a decade. Both cities saw a 15.7 per cent increase in new listings last month.

Meanwhile, Canberra posted the strongest monthly gain in listings with an increase of 21.6 per cent, ahead of Adelaide (19.3 per cent), Perth (18.0 per cent), Hobart (15.8 per cent), Brisbane (14.4 per cent) and Darwin (12.3 per cent).

PropTrack economist Angus Moore said that there had been a rush of homeowners looking to make a sale in the lead up to the Easter break as buyer demand remained high.

“Measures of buyer demand do look to be easing from the record levels seen in late 2021,” he noted.

“At the same time, the strong levels of new supply coming to market over the past six months have helped give buyers more choice and ease competition in the market.”

Nationally, new listings were 8.2 per cent higher than a year ago including an increase of 15.5 per cent in March.

Additionally, the total stock of properties for sale was up 7.5 per cent on the previous month with increases across all cities and regional areas.

New listings in regional areas lifted 14.4 per cent month-on-month, with the biggest rises in regional Tasmania (17.7 per cent) and regional South Australia (15.4 per cent).

Regional areas also saw a 5.4 per cent increase in the total stock of properties listed for sale.

“Nonetheless, available stock for sale remains limited after long periods of restricted market activity over the past year due to COVID-19 lockdowns and high levels of buyer demand,” REA Group said.

“This is particularly the case regionally, where the total stock available for sale remains 40 per cent below pre-pandemic levels.”

Mr Moore said that selling conditions were expected to remain strong during the autumn selling season, but warned that the property market was now facing headwinds.

“After hitting multi-decade highs in 2021, price growth is slowing; prices grew 0.3% month-on- month in March, the slowest monthly growth since May 2020,” he said.

“Rate rises look likely later this year, which is already starting to cool buyer appetite and weighing on price growth. The upcoming federal election could also provide a temporary headwind.”

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