Home owners reluctant to list their properties for sale

The number of properties listed for sale has increased, although this is due to less new listings coming onto the market than existing listings taking longer to sell.

SQM Research has reported that 231,039 properties across Australia were listed for sale in February, which was 7.7% higher than the year before.

Significantly, though, the number of new listings (those less than 30 days old) in February was 11.0% lower than the year before. Conversely, the number of old listings (those greater than 180 days) was 30.3% higher.

SQM managing director Louis Christopher said relatively few owners wanted to sell – or to set a price that met the market.

“This clearly reveals itself by the lower-than-average counts of new stock entering the market for February and what sellers are there, continue to hold the line on their asking price,” he said.

“But sellers do need to understand the market is unlikely to catch up to their asking price at this present point in time. Only a minority of sellers recognise this, hence why there has been a rather large rise in older listings.”