New property listings increase in January

The PropTrack Listings Report for February 2022 – which analyses property market supply trends – found new listings across combined capital cities surged 55.6 per cent following a “typical end of year slowdown” in December.

The busy start to the year saw new listings increase across all of the capital cities – with Sydney more than doubling what they were in December (up 101.5 per cent). 

While new listings picked up right across Sydney, the biggest increases were felt in inner-city areas – with the eastern suburbs (497 per cent) and North Sydney (485 per cent) both experiencing “significant” month-on-month increases.  

Melbourne also had a particularly busy start, with new listings up 67.5 per cent month-on-month, rebounding from the end-of-year slowdown, while total listings went down 9.7 per cent in the same period. 

Despite the omicron wave that continues to linger, the growth in new listings is a “stark contrast” to mid-2021 figures, when the delta wave “curtailed seller confidence”, PropTrack economist and report author, Angus Moore, said.

“Sellers are wasting no time as they look to cash in on last year’s price growth and high buyer demand,” Mr Moore said. 

Across the other major capital cities, Adelaide saw the next biggest increase up 49.4 per cent, followed by Hobart that saw a month-on-month increase of 36 per cent and Canberra was up 37.6 per cent.

New listings in Brisbane increased 30.5 per cent, followed by Darwin at 29.3 per cent and Perth saw a 27.8 per cent increase compared to the previous month. 

With no lockdowns on the immediate horizon, Mr Moore expects selling conditions to “remain strong over the next few months” but warned there could be “some headwinds”.

“While measures of buyer demand remain strong, record levels of new supply in the final months of 2021 have begun to ease buyer competition,” Mr Moore said. 

“Strong economic outcomes and rising inflation mean that rate rises will probably happen earlier than expected – potentially late 2022 or early 2023 – which may start to cool buyer appetite. 

“This means that, while selling conditions are likely to remain strong, we are likely to see some tempering from the dominant levels of buyer demand experienced in late 2021.” 

Despite the busy month of new listings, the “total stock” of properties available for sale around Australia fell 4.6 per cent month-on-month, with both capital cities (-5.1 per cent) and regional areas (-4.1 per cent) taking a dip. 

Total listings are the total supply of properties for sale in the reported month, which consist of all listings that were for sale during the month and include new listings – which saw the highest increases. 

This crunch for total listings was felt in Brisbane, dropped 24.9 per cent year-on-year, as well as Adelaide (-26.1 per cent YoY) and Hobart (-17.3 per cent YoY). 

Property listings dropped regionally 

When taking a look at the regional market, total listings went down more than 40 per cent from pre-pandemic levels. 

Regionally, new listings (-6.7 per cent), as well as total listings (-4.1 per cent) decreased, which was a “bit weaker” than is typically the case for the first month of the new year.

Despite a drop in new listings regionally month-on-month, conditions remain more favourable for buyers than in 2021, with new listings in January 2022 at 11.9 per cent, compared with the previous year. 

This is true across almost all states, with buyers in regional NSW (up 17.2 per cent YoY) and regional Western Australia (13.6 per cent YoY) enjoying the biggest increase in new listings. 

Only regional Tasmania saw fewer listings in January 2022 than in 2021 (down 3 per cent).