Sydney recorded the lowers number of residential property listings ever last month, while nationally listings are on the rise.
According to the latest SQM figures, Sydney listings have fallen by a total of 17% over the last year, currently sitting at just over 20,000.
Melbourne was the only other capital city to record a decrease, but also saw the most significant monthly fall.
Listings in Melbourne were down 3.4% between December and January, with a total yearly change of 5.4%. Current listings are at 39,740.
Nationally, stock on market came to a total of 342,157 – a monthly rise of 1.3%, following a quiet period over Christmas.
Conversely, Darwin has recorded a 23.1% increase in stock levels since this time last year (January 2013), which is likely signalling a slowdown in the Darwin housing market.
Canberra recorded the highest monthly rise in listings of all capital cities, increasing by 5.4% during January 2013 and coming to a total of 3,436.
Louis Christopher, managing director of SQM Research said over the course of early 2009 through to early 2010, Sydney house prices rose by 19.6%.
“Sydney real estate listings were higher at that time than what it is now. This is one of the primary pieces of evidence as to why we have been so bullish on the Sydney market for this year,” said Christopher.
Vendors of Sydney’s houses have raised their asking prices on average by 11.0% since the same month last year and by 4.6% for units.
This is the highest result of all capital cities around the country over the last 12 months, once again- strengthening SQM Research’s prediction that dwelling prices will rise by 15-20% in Sydney during 2014.
The average asking price of a house in Sydney has been recorded at $967,800 this week, remaining quite close to the one million dollar mark. This will be something to watch for in the coming months.
No capital cities have recorded extremely low results over the past 12 months, although the asking prices for houses in Canberra have only lifted by 0.4% since this time last year, and units have actually fallen by 2.5%.
