Preliminary weekly sales spike by 41% over 2021

The number of preliminary weekly sales of properties across Australia during 2021 has reached a figure 41.4 per cent higher than what was reported during 2020 and 59.4 per cent larger than 2019, according to REA Group’s PropTrack Housing Market Indicators Report for December 2021.

The development comes following the preliminary figure of 7,990 sales for the 49th week of the year, which, while being 1.7 per cent lower than the week prior’s result of 7,912 houses, is 11.6 per cent higher than the same week during 2020.

Since the second week of 2021, which saw 3,292 properties sold, every week this year thus far has recorded a higher figure than its equivalent in either 2020 or 2019.

The report has also stated that Victoria and Northern Territory experienced the largest year-on-year in cumulative sales, marking growth of 56.8 per cent and 44.7 per cent respectively. 

Both Tasmania (17.1 per cent) and the ACT (19.3 per cent) reported the lowest increases out of each state or territory. 

This distinction between 2021 and 2020 was also noted in the median number of days a property was listed on realestate.com.au before being sold, with November 2021 recording an average of 30 days. 

While this figure is unchanged to October’s average time, it marks a definitive drop from November 2019 and November 2020’s shared figure of 44 days. 

The ACT recorded the shortest median time for any state or territory during the month at 21 days, followed by NSW at 25 days. Both the NT and Western Australia reported the longest wait time at 75 days and 62 days respectively. 

The report also found that views per listing across the country during November were 1,755, a fall of 9 per cent compared to October’s 1,929 views. 

Email inquiry from buyers in November was 22.31 per cent lower than October, inquiries for units, land and houses dropped by 22.83 per cent, 11.69 per cent and 21.06 per cent respectively.

However, inquiries for units, land and houses remain roughly 13 per cent, 46 per cent and 27 per cent higher than November last year’s figures. 

PropTrack director of economic research Cameron Kusher said of the findings that Australia’s housing market is experiencing elevated demand, which in turn is seeing “high volumes of sales at rapid speeds”.

“However, there are also signs that some of the heat is coming out of the market, with falls in enquiry and a decline in views per listing,” he added. 

“We are still seeing many active buyers, but for the first time since the pandemic began, the strong ramp up in new listings has given them more choice. 

“Buyers continue to outweigh sellers in the current market, but the gap is narrowing, meaning the strength of the sellers’ market is softening.”

Mr Kusher added that he believes, as per the data, that demand is expected to ease from its strong levels, that fewer disruptions due to lockdowns “should lead to a consistent supply of new listings”, and that price growth is believed to slow. 

“Encouragingly for buyers, the volume of competition for housing stock should also ease,” he added. 

“Overall, we appear to be witnessing the first signs of a shift from an extreme sellers’ market to one which is slowly moving towards more balanced conditions between buyers and sellers.”

[Related: Frydenberg promises to press RBA, APRA on housing]