Homeowners have re-emerged from the summer break to list their properties for sale, with SQM Research revealing national residential listings increased by 4.6 per cent in February.
Listings rose from 328,089 in January to 343,190 in February and SQM Research managing director Louis Christopher said: “The rise in February listings was expected as homeowners listed their properties with the new year well underway”.
“The year-on-year listings, together with ongoing falls in asking prices, still provide evidence of a weak national housing market,” he added.
All states recorded an increase in listings, except for Darwin, which was down 0.8 per cent in February and down 1.6 per cent year-on-year.
Canberra recorded the highest increase in listings at 12.5 per cent, followed by Sydney at 11.6 per cent and Melbourne at 9.6 per cent. Hobart recorded the lowest rise at 3.2 per cent.
Compared to a year ago, national listings rose 7.9 per cent. Melbourne’s year-on-year listings were the highest at 30.8 per cent, followed by Canberra at 21.4 per cent.
Capital city asking prices for units and houses declined by 0.5 per cent and 0.6 per cent respectively for the month to 5 March. Unit asking prices are now $570,100 and houses $910,700.
Hobart is still outperforming all states, posting increases in both unit and house asking prices over the month of 2.9 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively.
Adelaide has also shown signs of recovery, with unit prices increasing by 0.2 per cent and house prices rising by 0.3 per cent over the month.
Melbourne’s house asking prices experienced the largest monthly decline of 2.3 per cent. Asking prices for units also declined, but only by a modest 0.1 per cent.
Year-on-year capital city asking prices dropped, with Sydney’s 12-month decline at 9.8 per cent for houses and 4.6 per cent for units.
Hobart continued to show the strongest growth for both houses and units with a 6 per cent increase for houses and 11.5 per cent rise for units.
Year-on-year capital city asking prices declined 2.4 per cent for units and 5.9 per cent for houses across Australia.
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