Housing stock up, asking prices steady over August

Melbourne saw the largest increase at 16.3 per cent to 37,671 listings, followed by Sydney at 10.9 per cent to 36,011 listings and then Canberra at 10.7 per cent to 3,998.

Following the top three was Brisbane at 5.2 per cent to 31,608 listings, then Adelaide at 4.9 per cent to 16,291. Hobart at 4.5 per cent to 2,047 listings, Perth at 3.8 per cent to 26,405 listings and Darwin at 2.2 per cent.

However, these figures were boosted from the fact that data was collected from five weeks’ worth of data, said Louis Christopher, managing director of SQM Research.

“That made a significant difference to stock levels in August, which were boosted by the fifth [week],” Mr Christopher said.

“In addition, some home owners are readying for a sale and want to list their homes sooner rather than later before prices fall any further, especially in Sydney, where asking house prices are down 2.1 per cent over the month to 4 September.

“That is also true of Melbourne, where the property market has slowed, reflected in a 1.2 per cent drop in asking house prices over the month.”

Despite asking prices being mostly down in each capital city market for houses and units for the month, nationally all houses remained steady, while units rose just 0.1 of a percentage point.

Adelaide was the only capital city market to see asking prices for houses, rising just 0.2 of a percentage point. Meanwhile, Canberra and Brisbane were the only two markets to see unit asking prices rise, at 0.3 per cent and 0.1 of a percentage point respectively.