New listings in capital cities were down 60.8% month-on-month in December, after a very strong November.
Regional areas also saw new listings decline sharply, down 27.3% month-on-month.
Property markets around Australia entered their typical end-of-year break in December.
Overall new listings on realestate.com.au declined 48.9% month-on-month in December, which is consistent with the slowdown we usually see at this time of year. Despite the decline, new listings were higher than at the same time last year, up 11.3% year-on-year.
New listings within capital cities declined 60.8% month-on-month in December but they were 10.4% higher year-on-year.
All capital cities saw large declines that are consistent with the typical end-of-year break in these markets.
With few new properties hitting the market in December, the total stock of properties available for sale around Australia fell 11.6% month-on-month.
The fall was larger in capital cities (-16.5% MoM) compared to regional areas (-5% MoM), which is consistent with the typically larger fall in new listings we expect to see in capital cities at the end of the year.
Despite large monthly falls in total listings, total listings were higher year-on-year in December 2021 in Sydney (6.5%), Melbourne (0.4%), Perth (2.8%) and Darwin (21.2%).
The long periods of restricted market activity due to COVID-19 lockdowns, coupled with high levels of buyer demand, mean that the total stock of properties available for sale is low compared to previous years.
This is particularly the case regionally, where total listings are down nearly 40% from pre-pandemic levels.
As buyers and sellers return in January, we expect to see market activity pick up.
Selling conditions are likely to remain strong over the next few months, however escalating COVID-19 cases across Australia may impact buyer and seller confidence.
While measures of buyer demand remain high, they began to ease towards the end of 2021, and we saw record levels of new supply coming to market in the final months of the year.
This means that selling conditions are likely to remain strong, however may not return to the dominant levels experienced in 2021.
Moore, A., 2022. PropTrack Listings Report, January 2022 – realestate.com.au. [online] Realestate.com.au. Available at: <https://www.realestate.com.au/insights/proptrack-listings-report-january-2022/#nsw> [Accessed 18 February 2022].