Melbourne has more homes listed for sale than any other capital city due a rise in distressed sales and investors fleeing the market.
New data from SQM Research revealed there were 45,372 homes on the market in the Victorian capital in the month of November, more than any of the nation’s major hubs.
Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide followed, with 36,931, 19,059 and 9,586 residences up for grabs for prospective homebuyers, respectively.
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Australia-wide, property listings increased by 20,721 listed homes last month, or 7.6 per cent, to bring a total number of homes on the market right now to 272,645.
Canberra (23.3 per cent), Sydney (17.6 per cent) and Melbourne (16.8 per cent) experienced the biggest increases in available housing supply in the 12 months to November.
SQM Research managing director Louis Christopher said clearly the housing market had slowed down, particularly in Sydney where prices had dropped by 0.9 per cent and in Melbourne by 0.7 per cent.
However, Mr Christopher said the spring selling season recorded higher listings activity than 2023, with total listings up 4.6 per cent compared to last year.
“This was mainly driven by a rise in older listings. New listings were just up by 1.8 per cent to 242,218 new listings for the period,” he said.
“New listings are very likely to fall away in the lead up to Christmas with the typical hiatus period occurring between the 23rd of December through to Australia Day.”
New listings — homes that just came to market in November — dipped 0.4 per cent month on month to 82,458 residences nationwide.
Once again, Melbourne topped the list with the most amount of new listings last month at 18,770 homes, followed by Sydney, 15,065, and Brisbane, 8264.
And the amount of distressed listings nationwide rose to 5444 in November, a 1.7 per cent rise from October.
Mr Christopher added that more financial distress within the community, elevated interest rates, and investors staying out of the market was contribution to the growth of housing stock available.
Real Estate Institute of Australia president Leanne Pilkington said the number of a days a residence is on the market for had also increased, especially in Sydney and Melbourne.
“We are seeing investors selling, in particular in Victoria, and that’s as a result of legislative changes and also in particular land tax, that’s really biting hard down there and investors are exiting,” Ms Pilkington said.
“And of course, we’ve been saying that interest rates are going to come down for for a while now and every month it seems like that reality has been extended out for another month.
“Now the banks are saying May or June; (people) just can’t hold on anymore.”
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sarah.petty@news.com.au