For a profession based on sales commissions, Australian real estate agents are experiencing their own version of the Hunger Games.
The following chart from Justin Fabo of Antipodean Macro shows that for-sale listings, as monitored by SQM Research, are almost 30% lower than a decade ago:
Separate CoreLogic data also shows that overall for-sale listings are substantially below past decade levels (see red line).
Source: CoreLogic
CoreLogic has released its ‘Decoding 2024: Real estate’s trends and goals revealed’ survey, which delves into insights of more than 1,400 real estate professionals.
One of the key insights of this survey is that low housing stock was identified by two in five (41%) respondents as the most significant stressor on their agency for the year ahead:
On the plus side, over half of survey respondents expressed a positive sentiment toward the economy in 2024, with 57% expecting some economic growth, while a similar number (59%) tipped dwelling values to rise this year.
But in the end, real estate agents live off housing turnover, and the lack of stock present in the market will make 2024 another tough year for agencies.
