Property listings Australia-wide increased last month, according to new data from independent advisory and forecasting company SQM Research, though there was a drop in the number of listings during the month in Sydney and Melbourne.
Across Australia, residential property stock on the market was up 1.9% from December 2014 to January 2015, to 351,509 homes, up 2.7% from a year previously. Melbourne stock on the market was down 0.8% on the month and Sydney’s listings down 3.1%.
Having experienced price downturns in the past year – a factor which the company attributed to a slowdown in local mining industries – there was a marked increase in the numbers of properties for sale in Darwin and Perth in particular over the month.
| City | January 2014 Total | December 2014 Total | January 2015 Total | Monthly change % | Yearly change % |
| Adelaide | 16,294 | 16,245 | 16,418 | 1.1% | 0.8% |
| Brisbane | 26,618 | 26,225 | 27,302 | 4.1% | 2.6% |
| Canberra | 3,436 | 3,086 | 3,221 | 4.4% | -6.3% |
| Darwin | 1,373 | 1,727 | 1,843 | 6.7% | 34.2% |
| Hobart | 4,663 | 4,198 | 4,251 | 1.3% | -8.8% |
| Melbourne | 39,740 | 37,073 | 36,799 | -0.8% | -7.5% |
| Perth | 19,471 | 22,350 | 23,566 | 5.4% | 21.0% |
| Sydney | 20,080 | 20,268 | 19,647 | -3.1% | -2.2% |
| National | 342,157 | 344,984 | 351,509 | 1.9% | 2.7% |
Louis Christopher, managing director of SQM Research, says: “The Sydney market remains strong. However this localised market strength is not really being experienced anywhere else outside Sydney. I would even argue that Melbourne remains patchy. We must remember local economic conditions are taking precedence in certain cities, namely those cities exposed to the mining downturn. As one can see with our listings and asking prices indexes, Perth and Darwin appear to be in deep trouble.”
