'Second surge' on its way for listings before Christmas

Canberra is also seeing a rise in listings, up by 10.3 per cent for the month and 17.9 per cent for the last year.

Melbourne saw a rise of 5.9 per cent, which resulted in Melbourne’s listings for this time last year to be up by nearly a quarter at 24.3 per cent.

Listings for the month were also up in Hobart, which rose by 0.6 of a percentage point.

Meanwhile, listings declined in Perth by 1.1 per cent, Adelaide by 3.2 per cent, and Darwin by 4.9 per cent.

Brisbane also saw a decline, albeit only very slightly, dropping from September’s 31,998 listings to 31,992 in October.

The overall drop, according to SQM Research’s managing director Louis Christopher, is perfectly normal.

“It is typical to record a slight decline in listings in October after an initial Spring jump in September. A second surge is usual in November, before the property market slows down for Christmas, and so we expect listings to rise again this month," Mr Christopher said.

“Having said that, listings were significantly up in Melbourne, creating large recorded rises over the year, which is illustrative of the downturn Melbourne has entered into. In Sydney too, listings are up compared to a year earlier, as well as Canberra, as more vendors consider selling,” he said.

Prices

For houses, the average capital city asking price held steady at $939,2000 over the month, while unit average capital city asking prices continued their decline from September by 0.4 of a percentage point to $569,500.

Brisbane, Adelaide and Canberra all saw asking price growth for both houses and units over October.

In Brisbane, house prices rose by 0.7 of a percentage point to $618,200 and unit prices rose by 0.3 of a percentage point to $381,000.

Adelaide’s house prices rose by 0.9 of a percentage point to $512,800 and unit prices rose by 0.6 of a percentage point to $304,100.

The country’s capital city of Canberra saw house prices rise by 0.7 of a percentage point to $829,7000 and unit prices rise by 0.8 of a percentage point to $427,600.

Meanwhile, both Sydney and Darwin experienced a decline in weekly asking prices over October for both houses and units.

Sydney experienced declines of 0.3 of a percentage point for houses to $1,304,200 and 0.4 of a percentage point for units to $702,700.

Darwin however saw the largest declines out of any capital city, with houses dropping by 0.6 of a percentage point to $579,800 and units dropping by 1.9 per cent to $364,300.