New statistics reveal properties across Australia sold at record speed in May.
The REA Insights Housing Market Indicators report showed the average number of days on-site fell to a historical low of 32 last month.
The June 2021 report combined eight key metrics to provide an up-to-date view of the property market and emerging trends.
These metrics include search activity, email inquiry, views per listing, weekly sales of properties listed for sale online, days on-site of properties sold, filtered searches by price and by bedroom, and developer inquiries.
It analysed consumer behaviour in real time by extracting market insights from the millions of Australians who access realestate.com.au every month.
Most notably, properties across Australia were continuing to sell at record-breaking levels. In May, the national average number of days a property remained ‘for sale’ on the website was 32 days.
This was a significant improvement from April’s data, which showed it took an average of 37 days for properties to sell across the nation.
REA Group Economist Anne Flaherty said the property market continues to show strength with demand outpacing supply in May.
“We are seeing properties sell at record speed so buyers are having to move quickly to compete in these market conditions,” she said.
“While demand may moderate over the coming winter months, views per listing increased in May and is now just shy of its historic high earlier this year.
“While search volumes for properties for sale have dropped slightly, softening supply may help to sustain above average views per listing. We do expect that the winter market will remain unseasonably active due to continued heightened demand.
“Investor inquiries are increasing, and we are seeing them return to the market, driven by the low cost of debt and expected capital growth. Interestingly, first-home buyer inquiry saw a slight rise in May after trending downwards since January.
“I expect prices will continue to rise over winter, however, with slightly reduced demand, stimulus removed from the market, and rises in longer-term fixed rate mortgage rates, prices are likely to rise at a slower pace.”
The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) property market was heating up throughout May, taking an average of 24 days for a property to sell.
New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria (VIC) followed close behind, with 27 and 28 day averages respectively.
South Australia broke its record with a 43 day average.
The other Australian states and territories did not improve their average sale times.
Other key report findings:
- The low cost of debt and high household savings are enabling Australians to buy more expensive properties, with all price categories above $750,000 seeing an increase in the proportion of searches compared to May 2020.
- More Australians are looking for properties over $1 million than under $500,000.
- The trend towards larger dwellings remains with the proportion of searches for three-bedroom or four-bedroom properties in capital cities also increased in May.
- While volume of searches for properties for sale has trended lower over recent weeks it remains 17.9 per cent higher than a year ago.
- Demand based on views per listing increased nationally by 7.7 per cent over May 2021 to be 53.5 per cent higher year-on-year.
- Despite the HomeBuilder scheme ending, inquiries from first-home buyers increased by 12.4 per cent over May. Inquiry from investors (7.2 per cent) and owner occupiers (7.4 per cent) also increased.
- Houses remain the most inquired-about property type (62.1 per cent), although, the proportion of inquiry for houses declined by 1.4 per cent over May
