Despite rising interest rates and falling prices, homeowners are not rushing to sell.
According to new data from CoreLogic, there were just 34,368 newly advertised properties listed for sale across the country in September, 14.3 per cent lower than the five-year average.
While the volume of new listings was slightly higher than the previous month, there’s no evidence yet that homeowners are being forced to sell as borrowing costs rise.
At the national level, total listings are starting to trend lower once again, which is likely the result of new listing levels falling faster than sales volumes CoreLogic said.
CoreLogic estimates there was more than one sale for each new property listed through September, depleting total stock levels.
“Total advertised stock levels are normalising in the capital cities, though still remain lower than this time last year across Perth and Adelaide,” CoreLogic said.
“New listings levels are lower than this time last year across five of the eight capital cities.”
Sydney has seen the sharpest decline in new listings, falling 25.5 per cent compared to the same time last year.
While Melbourne is 21.7 per cent lower and Brisbane is down 16.1 per cent.
New listings are higher than last year in Hobart, Darwin and Canberra.
Despite a lack of new listings, pressure still remains on property prices, which are continuing to decline.
“National home values fell by 4.1 per cent in the three months to September, the biggest quarterly decline in home values since the 1980s,” CoreLogic said.
“While the housing market downswing has become more broad-based, the monthly rate of decline slowed to 1.4 per cent in September, from 1.6 per cent through August.
“Dwelling values across Australia are 1.7 per cent higher than they were this time last year, down significantly from a cyclical peak of 22.4 per cent recorded in the 12 months to January 2022.”
At the same time, the lack of demand is showing up in the total number of transactions.
CoreLogic estimates that in the 12 months to September, there were 566,609 sales nationally, down 5.2 per cent compared to the previous year.
“At the national level, properties are taking longer to sell,” CoreLogic said.
“In the three months to September, the median days on market was 35, up from a recent low of 20 days over the three months to November.”
“Similarly, vendor discounting has also increased from the recent low of 2.9 per cent recorded in the three months to November last year.
“In the three months to September, the median vendor discount at the national level was 4.2 per cent.”
At the same time, there has been a slight pick-up in auction clearance data over the past few weeks, signalling there is some renewed interest from homebuyers.
The combined capital cities clearance rate trended higher through September, averaging 59.8 per cent in the five weeks to September 25.
While up from the average recorded over August (56.8 per cent), it is down from 74.3 per cent in the equivalent period of 2021.
Meanwhile in the rental market, while vacancy rates sit at record-low levels, there is evidence that the rate of rental growth is starting to slow down.
After an extended period, where there was more demand for larger houses, high rental prices are forcing renters to once again look at units.
“Annual growth in house rents has shown signs of moderating growth, falling to 9.4 per cent in the 12 months to September,” CoreLogic said.
“Unit rent values have seen increased momentum, rising 11.8 per cent over the past year.
“This saw annual rental growth across national dwelling hold steady at 10 per cent.”
