February total housing listings rise by 8.4%

Key points

• In February 2024, the number of national residential property listings increased by 8,4%, rising to 239,459 dwellings from the 220,956 recorded in January 2024.
• Nationally, new listings (Less than 30 days) recorded a 66,4% rise in February, with 74,698 fresh property listings entering the market.
• Distressed property listings increased by 1.1%.
• National combined dwelling asking prices remained steady for the month.

According to yesterday’s data from SQM Research, February recorded an 8.4% increase in nationwide residential property listings. The total listings now stand at 239,459 properties, an increase from the 220,956 recorded in January 2024. Notably, all major cities experienced a significant increase in their listings.

Over the course of a 12-month period, residential property listings across the nation recorded a 3.6% rise. Notably, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide stood out, reporting a significant decrease of 13.6%, 22.3% and 9.8%, respectively.

New listings

Nationally, new listings (less than 30 days) increased by 66.4% in February, introducing 74,698 fresh listings to the market. All listed cities continued to experience increases in new listings to some extent.

Old listings

In February, older listings (properties listed for over 180 days) remained steady, but still show a 4.0% increase over the past 12 months. Notably, most cities recorded an uptick in older stock during the month.

Distressed listings

According to SQM Research’s latest report in February 2024, the count of residential properties sold under distressed conditions in Australia has slightly increased to 5,312. This marks a 1.1% increase from the 5,252 distressed listings noted in January 2024

The majority of cities experienced increased distressed activity, however, QLD, WA, and SA attributed decreases of 1.5%, 6.8%, and 1.7%, respectively. NSW recorded a further 7.3% increase in distressed selling activity. This was over and above the 9% increase recorded in January. Canberra recorded a 27.8% rise in distressed activity, however, in absolute numbers, activity is small at just 23 dwellings.

Louis Christopher, Managing Director of SQM Research said: “The month of February recorded a strong surge in new listings activity in all cities compared to January and indeed over the same period last year for most cities. Both sellers and buyers are very active in the market at this point in time which explains the rise in weekly auction clearance rates.

I also note the ongoing rises in distressed activity, particularly for NSW and Victoria. While not yet at alarming levels there has been a clear trend upwards in recent months and we will continue to monitor and report on this market situation as it unfolds.”

Asking prices

The national combined dwelling asking price rose by 0.4% to record a median dwelling asking price $ 824.788. Asking prices for capital cities decreased by 0.1%, marking an 9.4% rise compared to February 2023. Sydney combined asking price saw a notable decrease of 2.3%.