New property listings surged 20.9 per cent nationally last month, reaching a stunning decade-high and putting homebuyers in the driver’s seat as sellers face renewed pressure to meet the market.
PropTrack’s Listings Report, released today, concluded buyers were “spoiled for choice”, with the volume of properties hitting the market across capital cities marking the strongest October result in ten years, up 23.2 per cent from the previous month or 15.2 per cent compared to 2023.
Every capital city recorded a monthly uptick in new listings, while all bar Darwin also notched year-on-year growth.
National new listing volumes surged in October
PropTrack Listings Report October 2024
Melbourne and Canberra had record-high new listings for the month of October, up 33 and 31.6 per cent respectively, while Perth and Hobart also had monthly increases of about 30 per cent.
Meanwhile, Perth (up 28.3 per cent), Canberra (19 per cent) and Brisbane (16 per cent) recorded the largest year-on-year increases in new buy opportunities.
PropTrack director of economic research Cameron Kusher said factors behind the listings spike included strong recent price growth prompting homeowners to upgrade, while others had been forced to sell due to prolonged high interest rates.
“Buyers across Australia enjoyed greater choice in October, with all markets recording a monthly jump in new listings and most markets proving far busier than at the same time last year,” Mr Kusher said.
PropTrack director of economic research Cameron Kusher
“Heightened levels of stock for sale affords buyers more choice and removed some purchasing urgency from the market from the market.
“We’re seeing a more balanced dynamic between buyers and sellers than we have in recent years, with conditions quite favourable for purchasers in cities like Sydney and Melbourne.”
The Block auctioneer Tom Panos said the figures were, “great news for buyers and not so great news for sellers”.
“I’ve noticed more properties that are being passed in, more properties that have been cancelled from auction because they have no buyers, and also more properties being sold prior to auction, because the agent and the vendor have realised a few days before that they only have one buyer interested,” Mr Panos said.
Auctioneer Tom Panos
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“It is good news for buyers who for a long period of time have been struggling for choice.
“If you want to be one of the vendors who sells you must adjust your expectations to meet market value, because there is becoming a gap between what buyers are prepared to pay and what the vendor wants.”
Monthly new listings October/PropTrack
While that gap varied between Australian markets, even Perth — which Mr Panos said had been “going gangbusters” for the last two years — was experiencing a shift, with days on market trending up as more homes hit the market.
In Queensland, the high-profile auction of a holiday home owned by tennis star Lleyton Hewitt and his wife Bec was cancelled, with no bids placed on the day despite more than 100 people in attendance.
Auction cancelled: Bec and Lleyton Hewitt’s Queensland holiday home
Agents had touted $4m expectations for the Palm Springs-style mansion in fashionable Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast, where the median house price of $1.4m was down 2.9 per cent from last year.
New listings across regional markets were also up 17 per cent from last month or 11.9 per cent annually.
Total listings volumes were boosted as a result, up 8.7 per cent from 2023 to hit their highest level since November 2020.
Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne had the largest increases in total listing volumes over the year – up 27.3, 17.8 and 16 per cent respectively.
Buyer conditions in Melbourne and Sydney were “quite favourable”
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