Property listings rise for February – A jump in new listings yet counts still down on previous years

Figures released by SQM Research reveal national residential property listings rose over February by 7.4% to 231,039 properties, from 215,144 recorded in January 2022.

The rise was driven by a 67.3% surge in new listings over the month to 70,948 dwellings. However, it should be noted the rise in new listings was to be expected given the opening of the new property season after the hiatus in the market from the January school holiday period. The average count of new listings for a month of February since 2017, has been 75,460 dwellings.

All cities recorded a rise in total listings for the month. Sydney, recorded a rise in listings of 16.2%. Canberra and Melbourne also recorded a solid rise of 21% and 12.6% respectively.

On a 12 month basis, residential property listings rose by 7.7%, driven by a 12.4% rise in Brisbane. Sydney and Melbourne have recorded minor declines on a year on year basis, suggesting the opening of the 2023 property season is a little more muted compared to 2022.

New listings

Nationally, new listings (Less than 30 days) rose by 67.3% over January 2023 to 70,948 properties on the market. However, new listings are 11% below levels recorded in February 2022.

Old listings continue to rise

Property listings over 180 days rose by 5.2% over February 2023 and rose by 30.3% over the year.  Hobart, Sydney and Melbourne continue to record significant increases of 217.9%, 71.1% and 39.7% respectively.

Distressed listings stabilise

As part of today’s release SQM Research notes that as of 1 March 2023, there were 5,917 residential properties nationwide selling under distressed conditions. This has fallen  by 1.7% from 6,018 distressed listings recorded in January 2023. The fall in distressed selling activity was driven largely by falls recorded in Queensland and the ACT. NSW however recorded another sharp rise of 6.2%. Distressed listings activity has surged in NSW (up by 59.5%) compared to the same period last year.

Asking prices rose marginally

Over the month to 28 February 2023, national asking prices rose by 0.2% for combined dwellings. Capital city asking prices fell by 0.4% over the same period. Thus far in this downturn, asking prices have moved very little compared with actual prices. This would explain the large fall in volumes and clearance rates given the lower levels of agreement between buyers and sellers.

Louis Christopher, Managing Director of SQM Research said, “Despite the housing downturn, there remains a distinct lack of intent by many sellers to come to market and to meet the market. This clearly reveals itself by the lower-than-average counts of new stock entering the market for February and what sellers are there, continue to hold the line on their asking price.

But sellers do need to understand the market is unlikely to catch up to their asking price at this present point in time. Only a minority of sellers recognise this, hence why there has been a rather large rise in older listings. However, the lack of distressed selling activity also suggests little panic by sellers.

Going forward, I remain cautious on the housing market despite some recent sign prices might be stabilising. Much depends at what point and when the RBA will pause cash rate increases.