Christmas lull sees property listings drop 20%

Despite the noise of auctions running hot, national residential property listings fell 20% in December compared to the same period a year ago.

SQM Research figures released Tuesday revealed national residential property listings fell in December 2021 by 6.5% to 218,415 from the 233,716 recorded in November.

Three key property performers through the year in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra all recorded the greatest falls in listings of 15.8%, 12.9% and 15.9% respectively across the month of December.

Nationally, new listings of fewer than 30 days fell 29.5% over December 2021 to 67,972 properties on the market as the silly season appeared to take priority. 

Of this fall, capitals that saw the greatest decline were Sydney with a 47.4% reduction, followed by Melbourne at 40.9% and Adelaide at 37.4%.

Source: SQM Research

Managing Director of SQM Research Louis Christopher said while there was a significant surge in auction activity over December, total listings were down on a month by month and a year-by-year comparison.

"Sydney did record a surge in new listings when we take out the seasonality and compare against December 2020," Mr Christopher said. 

"Overall, there remains a shortage of listings at the national level and as a result, vendors are in no panic - indeed, they lifted their asking prices for the month.

"Unless we have a surge in listings for the start of the property season in February it is looking like a very soft landing for the housing market in 2022.”

Over the past 30 days to January 4, SQM Research detailed:

• Sydney asking prices rose by 1.1% for houses and 0.4% for units.
• Melbourne asking prices rose 3% for houses and fell 1% for units.
• Brisbane and Perth asking prices rose 4.2% and 0.1% for houses and 2.6% and 1.2% for units.
• Adelaide asking prices for houses rose 4.3% fell 0.5% for units.
• Canberra asking prices for houses rose 8.4% and 5% for units.
• Darwin asking prices for houses rose 1.7% and units fell 1.1%.
• Hobart asking prices for units fell by 0.4%.

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