December’s Listings Up Year-on-Year

Weekly Real Estate Market Update with Leigh Martinuzzi

In the final meeting of the year, as predicted the RBA has decided to leave the official interest rates at 0.1%. It’s remained this way for 12 months straight and in the next meeting on the 1st of February 2022, it will likely remain unchanged. Before the RBA makes any move, they’ve indicated they wish to see actual inflation sustainable between 2 and 3%. The RBA continues to hold their forecast that they will likely not see a change in the cash rate until at least 2024. Of course, this is highly dependent on how the economy holds out over the next 12 to 24 months. 

Properties that have been taken to auction last week have increased again, particularly in our southern states. With the surge in new homes coming to the market for sale, naturally, auction clearance rates lowered. While the market still seems to be in favour of sellers with more choice for buyers, we’ve seen signs that price growth has peaked. Many homeowners are choosing to sell prior to auction to secure a sale. The number of properties withdrawn from sale rises and price expectations are not being met. 

In Queensland, we’ve seen a further increase in new listing activity with Brisbane reporting a 14.4% month-on-month spike. With more choices, house prices have softened. Last week in Sydney, prices didn’t grow while Melbourne noticed a slight drop of 0.1%. In the greater Brisbane region while still up 0.8% last week, December’s price growth is slowing, so far sitting at 1.1%, down on its record month in November of 2.8%. 

Locally while we expect to lag the capital cities and the southern trends, we’ve noticed a slight cooling in the market. There has been a noticeable number of pre-Christmas listings come available for buyers. There are fewer enquiries and inspection numbers are down however strong and often multiple offers are still being presented quickly. 

While it is easy to get excited and extra ambitious as a seller after being witness to such a bumper year in property price growth one thing is certain, buyers have more choice. Properties that represent good value for money and are presented well will continue to sell for good prices, quickly. Those that don’t may remain on the market for sale longer than desirable. My tip for sellers is to remain ambitious but not unreasonable. Good offers are still available now however it seems the market is shifting. 

AUCTION RESULTS STATE BY STATE – WEEK ENDING SUN 12th DECEMBER 2021

• Queensland – =79% (171/1621)
• NSW – 85% (961/1952)
• Victoria – 84% (1259/1763)
• ACT – 90% (150/82)
• South Australia – 90% (160/454)
• Tasmania – 100% (2/243)
• Western Australia – 100% (2/779)
• Northern Territory – 75% (4/25)

*(Auctions/Private Sales) *(Source, REA)

REVIEW OF THE WEEK

Friendly, genuine, top agent.

Leigh was the best agent we could ask for. He was knowledgeable and professional. Leigh was friendly, easy to deal with, and kept us in the loop regularly. We felt like we could trust him to get us the best price and he went above and beyond our hopes. He was recommended to us for being a great agent and we would also recommend him to anyone looking to sell. Thanks, Leigh. – Seller