SQM Research has released property listings data for February, which shows that unsold homes are piling up across the nation.
While overall for sale listings rose 7.4% in February to be 7.7% higher year-on-year:
And new listings remain 11% below their level at the same time last year:
Old listings of greater than 180 days have ballooned 30.3% year-on-year:
The rise in unsold homes comes amid a major weakening in buyer demand.
CoreLogic’s data shows that sales volumes have fallen well below the five-year average across the combined capital cities:
The volume of mortgage originations has also collapsed 35% year-on-year:
With the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) almost certain to lift rates higher, buyer demand should contract further.
One bright spot for house prices is the lack of urgency of vendors to sell into a falling market, which is helping to support values. Hence, the dearth in new listings.
This should change this year as interest rates move higher and nearly one quarter of mortgages move from cheap pandemic fixed rates to variable rates that are more than double current levels.
This fixed rate “mortgage cliff” will likely see a large increase in forced sales, which will pull house prices lower.
