Residential property listings ended the year 20 per cent lower than at the start with Brisbane, Adelaide and Hobart recording the largest decline in overall listings at year end, according to SQM Research.
In its monthly report for December, the property investment research house stated total national property listings fell from 273,000 to 218,400 over the 12 months to the end of 2020.
While Sydney and Melbourne saw some of the largest declines in listing in the last month of 2020, the largest declines across the year occurred in Brisbane were listings fell by 34.4 per cent over 2021, followed by Adelaide (-28.1 per cent), Canberra (-25.4 per cent) and Hobart (-24.4 per cent).
The declines in total listings for Sydney and Melbourne fell only by 2.7 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively while Perth and Darwin saw increases in total listings of 1.9 per cent and 18.7 per cent respectively.
Conversely, Sydney and Melbourne lead the way for the largest declines in total property listings for the last month of the year declining 15.8 per cent and 12.9 per cent respectively from November to December 2021.
Canberra and Adelaide also saw significant declines of 15.9 per cent and 10 per cent respectively, across the same period. At the same time, the total number of property listing across Australia declined 6.5 per cent from 233,720 to 218,400.
SQM Research noted that while new listings (less than 30 days) nationally fell by 29.5 per cent over December 2021 to 67,972 properties on the market, they rose 2.4 per cent over the year. Each state capital recorded a sizeable decline in December with Hobart having the smallest decline of18.4 per cent and Sydney the highest of 47.4 per cent.
The research house also noted, in a sign that older stock was clearing, property listings over 180 days dropped by 6.8 per cent in December 2021 and by 49.5 per cent over the year.
SQM Research Managing Director Louis Christopher said the decline in listings followed a surge in auction activity over December and property prices remained stable.
Over the 30 days to 4 January 2022, every state capital had an increase in asking prices ranging from 1.1 per cent in Sydney to 8.4 per cent in Canberra while unit prices remained stable with minor increases or decreases.
“Overall, there remains a shortage of listings at the national level. As a result, vendors are in no panic at this point. Indeed, they lifted their asking prices for the month,” Christopher said.
“Unless we have a surge in listings for the start of the property season in February it is looking like a very soft landing for the housing market in 2022.”
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