New capital city property listings soar in January

By Jon Bragg

February 11 2022
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Last month delivered the busiest start to the year for new capital city listings since 2014.

New capital city property listings soar in January

New listings across Australia’s capital cities in January increased by 55.6 per cent compared to a month earlier, according to REA Group’s latest PropTrack Listings Report.

The report, which analyses listings on realestate.com.au, found that this was the busiest January for new listings in the capital cities since 2014, with a rise of 15.9 per cent versus January 2021.

“The growth in new listings in January comes despite the Omicron wave,” said PropTrack economist Angus Moore.

“This is in stark contrast to mid-2021, when the Delta wave (and associated lockdowns) curtailed seller confidence in affected states. Sellers are wasting no time as they look to cash in on last year’s price growth and high buyer demand.”

Sydney recorded the strongest month-on-month gain in new listings with a rise of 101.5 per cent, followed by Melbourne (67.5 per cent) and Adelaide (49.4 per cent).

All capital cities also saw a rise in new listings on an annual basis, with the biggest increases in Darwin (45.2 per cent) and Perth (33.9 per cent).

“With no lockdowns on the immediate horizon, selling conditions are likely to remain strong over the next few months. However, there are some headwinds,” Mr Moore said.

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

New listings in regional areas were down 6.7 per cent compared to December 2021, impacted by significant declines in South Australia (-29.6 per cent) and Tasmania (-20 per cent).

However, a rise of 11.9 per cent was recorded across regional areas on an annual basis.

PropTrack also found that the total number of properties available for sale declined in both capital cities (-5.1 per cent) and regional areas (-4.1 per cent) from December last year.

Nationally, listings fell by 15.7 per cent year-on-year, including a 26.1 per cent fall in Adelaide and a 24.9 per cent drop in Brisbane.

“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,” said Mr Moore.

“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.”

PropTrack previously predicted that property prices would rise between 6 and 9 per cent during 2022.

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