Residential property listings fell across Australia during August, however the fall was likely a seasonal occurrence as sellers prepare for the traditional spring selling season.
Figures from SQM Research show there were 333,123 residential listings across Australia in August, representing a monthly fall of 4.3%.
In year-on-year terms, listings were 0.4% lower when compared with August 2015.
Over August, Hobart saw the largest monthly fall in listings at 7%, followed by Adeliade at 6.4%, while listings fell by 5.2% and 4.6% in Brisbane and Perth respectively.
The remaining capital cities all saw smaller falls of between 2.8% to 3.9%.
While all capital city markets saw monthly falls, the year-on-year figures paint a different story.
Hobart in the only market where listings are lower when compared to 12 months ago, recording a significant decline of 10.7%.
In Melbourne listings have remained flat over the past year, however they have risen in all other markets.
Sydney has seen the biggest increase over the year at 12.3%, followed by Brisbane at 9.3%.
In Perth listings are up 7.9%, while Adelaide has seen a yearly increase of 2.4%.
Canberra and Darwin have seen smaller yearly increases of 0.1% and 0.3% respectively.
SQM Research managing director Louis Christopher said he expects listings to increase as spring rolls on, however the figures do a show a split in conditions across the capital cities.
“Our latest indicators on listings and asking prices suggest the national housing market is not displaying any major uplift in activity at this point in time,” Christopher said.
“It seems to be a very mixed housing market overall with the stronger markets being Melbourne and Hobart and the weaker markets being Perth and Darwin,” he said.
According to SQM, asking prices were largely flat during the month of August with a minor 0.1% rise for houses and a 0.2% decline for units.
Year-on-year results reveal Melbourne’s median asking prices have risen 14.5% for houses and 5.2% for units, while in Hobart the median asking price for a house has risen 4.4%, while unit asking prices have jumped 22.6%.
Meanwhile, median asking prices for houses in both Darwin and Perth continue to fall, down 7.8% and 5.2% respectively over the year.
