After a quiet end-of-year break, real estate activity began to pick up in January
- Posted By Ndl 1 Realty
After a slow end-of-year holiday period, the housing market has picked up the pace, with buyers being presented with a greater variety of properties.
With 92.7% more homes listed for sale in the capital cities this month than in December, PropTrack's January Listings Report shows just how quiet it was in December.
The report's author, PropTrack economist Angus Moore, nonetheless said new listings were down 12.4% from the same period last year.
According to Mr. Moore, the relatively calm atmosphere during the end-of-year break resulted in a slight decrease in supply during January, with the overall number of properties available for sale in major cities dropping by 1.2% on a monthly basis.
“Despite that, it’s still a significant improvement compared to a year ago, with 7.9% more properties available for sale than in January 2022.”
The number of new listings increased 49.8% from December to January, but decreased 9.4% from last year
Despite that, Mr Moore noted that the figure is still higher than it was in January 2020 and January 2021 before the pandemic boosted housing markets.
There was an increase in new listings in Hobart of 24.6%, while new listings in Sydney and Melbourne decreased by 16 and 15.4%, respectively.
“This continued the busier pace of activity in Hobart’s property markets seen through much of 2022,” Mr Moore said.
The good news for buyers is that overall choice has increased compared to a year ago in terms of the number of total property listings in each market.
Almost all major cities have witnessed a surge in the overall number of properties available for sale compared to the previous year, except for Perth, which has recorded a decline.
In regional areas, the supply of properties for sale is still limited, although it is gradually improving. Nonetheless, the total number of properties for sale in regional areas is still more than one-third lower than pre-pandemic levels.
Despite this, the regional market has experienced a significant year-on-year rise of 15.8% in the total number of properties available for sale, the highest annual increase in at least ten years.
Although the market may have softened since early 2022, Moore said they had come off a very high base.
He highlighted that the underlying, enduring factors that propel the demand for housing continue to remain robust.
Unemployment rates have remained at historic lows for much of 2022 and have even decreased further. Although wage growth has been slower than inflation, it has started to show improvement.
Additionally, the resurgence of international migration will further augment the demand for housing.
The recent decline in home prices can be attributed to the Reserve Bank of Australia's rapid interest rate hikes. While it is expected that the RBA will continue to raise rates, there may not be much room left for further increases.