Demand for housing in Australia continued to outpace listing volumes in April, according to the latest data from REA Group.
The first REA Insights Listings Report, a monthly report that analyses new and active listings on realestate.com.au to provide up-to-date information on market trends, was released today.
“Realestate.com.au is the largest real estate advertising portal in the country, and we get a unique view on what’s happening with the amount of stock listed on the market,” REA Group’s Director of Economic Research Cameron Kusher told Elite Agent about the newly launched report.
”The purpose of this report is essentially to start telling that story.”
One of the key findings of the report was that new national listings fell by -6.9 per cent in April compared to March.
But despite the decline in new listings to the market last month, the volume was still higher than it was in February, and represented the second-highest number of monthly new listings since October 2019.
“Given the number of public holidays and school holidays, that wasn’t really a surprise to see,” Mr Kusher said.
“I think it will be interesting to see what happens in May because you don’t have those seasonal factors.”
Mr Kusher said overall, buyer demand remains strong and continues to outpace supply.
“With demand at heightened levels, residual stock for sale continues to be sold, reducing the active supply,” he said.
“Therefore, active listing volumes continue to drift lower highlighting strong demand.
“This demonstrates that despite rising prices and some steam coming out of the market, we are still seeing strong buyer activity.”
Capital cities lead the charge for new listings
During April, 64.6 per cent of new listings were in capital city areas.
The number of new listings increased over the month in Sydney by 1 per cent, and in Darwin by 9.3 per cent, but declined in all other capital cities.
“The Sydney housing market is obviously really strong – it’s a big city with lots of demand, and prices are really high,” Mr Kusher said.
“It’s probably just a case that vendors were still willing to put their properties on the market despite maybe a few less buyers being around.
“And the Darwin housing market’s really been doldrums for the best part of a decade, but it’s now performing quite strongly.
“We’re talking low numbers of actual listings in Darwin, but I think, again, it’s just people saying ‘let’s get our property listed while there are a lot of people wanting to buy’, and not worrying too much about public holidays or school holidays.”
New listings also fell over the month in all non-capital city markets.
The number of monthly new listings in April 2021 were 98.1 per cent higher than a year ago, with increases of 114 per cent in capital city markets and 74.5 per cent in regional markets.
However, Mr Kusher pointed out that the figures from a year ago reflect the national lockdown period.
Active listings – the total supply of properties for sale in the reported month – consist of all listings for sale during that month, irrespective of the date they first appeared on realestate.com.au.
Active listings in April were at historic low levels in Hobart and in all regional markets except for regional NT, highlighting the strong buyer demand for property in these areas.
Mr Kusher said the report suggested values would continue to increase across the country in the short-term.
“I expect property prices will continue to rise, however, with a better balance between demand and supply it’s reasonable to anticipate that the rate of price growth will slow over the coming months,” he said.
