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Residential Property

Residential property listings drop in April

National property sales listings fell by 6.3 per cent in April to 332,236 from 354,459 in March.

The latest SQM Research data indicated all states experienced a decrease in property sales listings during April, mainly due to the Easter long weekend and Anzac Day public holidays.

Sydney recorded the highest decrease at 11.1 per cent, followed by Melbourne, with a fall of 8.9 per cent, and Canberra, with a drop of 8.8 per cent. Darwin recorded the lowest decrease at 4.3 per cent.

SQM Research managing director Louis Christopher said: “The decrease is mainly due to the Easter long weekend and Anzac Day public holidays in the month of April, which had only three weekends of trade compared to March, which had five weekends.”

Despite the monthly decrease, there was an increase of 18.2 per cent in Melbourne and 15.3 per cent in Canberra on a year-on-year basis. Sydney experienced a marginal rise of 0.7 per cent in the 12 months to April 2019. National listings rose 2.2 per cent over the year.

“If Sydney listings are starting to peak, that could be a sign we are getting closer to the bottom in this downturn,” Christopher said.

“However, the election could also be having an impact here, with both buyers and sellers waiting until the election is over before making decisions.”

The research showed during April asking prices in the capital cities increased marginally by 0.1 per cent for houses, but declined 0.6 per cent for units. The capital city average asking price for a house was $908,800 and $559,900 for units.

Sydney continued to record the highest average asking prices for houses and units at $1,229,100 and $686,500 respectively.

The year to April was not as positive for residential properties, with house asking prices falling 6.5 per cent and unit asking prices declining 3.8 per cent over the period.

Sydney experienced a decline of 9.3 per cent for houses and 5.8 per cent for units over the year. In the same period, Melbourne’s house and unit asking prices suffered a decline of 7.1 per cent and 0.1 per cent respectively.

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