Melissa Jenkins
(Australian Associated Press)
Australia’s property market is continuing to come off the boil, with Adelaide and Darwin the only major cities with more new homes listed for sale than a year ago.
Home values in Sydney dropped 0.2 per cent over the week to last Sunday, and were 0.7 per cent lower on a monthly basis, according to property data group CoreLogic.
Perth, Melbourne and Adelaide values added 0.1 per cent in the week just ended, while Brisbane was flat.
But, there were fewer properties across all capital cities together put up for auction than was the case at the same time last year.
There were 27,199 new capital city property listings last week, which was down 4.3 per cent.
“The main driver behind that is the fact the market is slowing, particularly in Sydney,” CoreLogic Head of Research Australia Cameron Kusher said.
“Even in Melbourne, it (the number of new listings) is slightly lower than it was a year ago and, I think, conditions are certainly not as strong as they were six or seven months ago, so vendors are responding.”
Hobart had the sharpest drop in new listings with its 432 properties for sale down 15.5 per cent on the same week in 2016.
The next biggest fall was in Perth, which had almost 10 per cent fewer new listings.
Mr Kusher said the drop in numbers of people in Perth wanting to sell their property reflected the improvement in the WA economy.
“(Previously,) we have seen heightened levels of stock coming onto the market in Perth because a lot of people have had to sell or have been selling to move away from Western Australia,” he said.
“Now, obviously, the economy is starting to improve a little bit … there is not as many people who are trying to get out of that market as there as been over the last few years.”
Sydney had 6,645 new property listings, 7.3 per cent fewer than a year ago, while Melbourne’s 8,743, was only a 0.2 per cent decline.
Mr Kusher said new listings would continue to fall before Christmas, then the market would reset around next February.
“I would expect that you would see fewer properties coming onto the market in Sydney because selling conditions are going to be a little bit more difficult,” he said.
“In Melbourne, it’s hard to know (what will happen) because that market is slow but values are still rising.”
On the auction front, some 3,276 homes went under the hammer last week but more than a third didn’t sell.
CAPITAL CITY PRIVATE TREATY MEDIAN PRICES
HOUSES
Sydney – $942,000
Melbourne – $750,000
Canberra – $658,500
Brisbane – $524,500
Perth – $520,000
Darwin – $475,000
Adelaide – $440,000
Hobart – $400,000
Combined capitals – $701,880
UNITS
Sydney – $705,000
Melbourne – $541,000
Canberra – $448,000
Perth – $398,000
Brisbane – $389,400
Darwin – $345,000
Adelaide – $330,750
Hobart – $310,000
Combined capitals – $570,575
Source: CoreLogic Property Market Indicator Summary week ending December 3, 2017.
