What Listings Data Reveals About How Sydney’s Spring Selling Season Is Tracking

After a frenetic start to 2022 and a busier-than-usual winter, how is the spring selling season tracking in Sydney’s eastern suburbs?

We take a look at the listings data to get the lowdown.

This year got off to a cracking start for the Sydney property market, and winter saw more activity than usual too. So how is spring, typically the busiest time of the year for real estate, tracking? We dig into the Sydney and eastern suburbs listings numbers to find out.

What kind of start did the spring selling season have this year?

With spring normally the most action-packed time of year for Sydney’s residential property market, September usually brings a higher number of new houses for sale, known as listings. However, this year, things were a little different. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the number of properties listed for sale in September actually fell 13% from August and was down 17.5% year-on-year. New listings were also down 10.3% on September 2018 figures, when the Sydney property market was experiencing a downturn. Here in the eastern suburbs, the drop in new listings was even sharper – September’s new listings were 17.3% lower than August’s, 30.6% lower than the same time last year and 14.4% lower than September 2018.

So, what caused this quieter-than-usual start to the spring selling season? This year we had already seen plenty of sales activity before spring even began. The market got off to a strong start at the beginning of the year and then experienced a busier-than-usual winter. The one-off National Day of Mourning public holiday on 22 September, coming just ahead of the spring school holidays, also had an effect on listings numbers, with some sellers choosing to hold their property back from the market until after the public holiday and the school holidays had passed.

Interestingly, the lower number of listings themselves also contributed, with some sellers choosing to wait until there was more choice for them to buy before listing their current property for sale. Other sellers were cautious about listing their property amid rising interest rates.

What happened in the Sydney property market in October?

After spring got off to a slow start with a somewhat sluggish September, PropTrack reports that new listings picked up in October. New listings in Sydney were up 7.1% on September’s figures. However, given that October is typically the busiest month for our city’s property market, that represents a modest increase in listings and is lower than in recent years. In fact, it’s down 31.2% on last October. Here in the east, Bondi Beach saw Sydney’s second-biggest decrease in new listings year-on-year, recording a 65% drop. This is in part because this October has been quieter than a typical October, but mostly because new listings in October 2021 were markedly higher than usual, thanks to the fact that COVID restrictions were easing. This time last year, the Sydney property market was going gangbusters to make up for time lost to lockdowns.

October saw the total stock of homes for sale in Sydney fall slightly to 1% lower than in September. But despite a quieter-than-usual spring for new listings, the total stock available for sale is still 8.9% higher than it was a year ago. It is also higher than the previous decade’s average, just as it has been for most of the past six months.

Here in the eastern suburbs, SQM Research numbers reveal that in October, the number of listings less than 30 days old was 36.3% less than at the same time last year. The number of total listings, meanwhile, was 5.4% lower.

What can we expect from the Sydney property market now?

There’s no doubt that sales activity has been slower than expected for this time of year. However, it’s still too early to know whether this represents a gear shift for the market or whether the market is simply taking a breather after what was a very busy first half of the year.

While national home prices have softened by 3.5% since the March peak amid rising interest rates and inflation, the foundations of Sydney’s property market remain solid. The national unemployment rate remains very low, dropping again in October to reach 3.4%, and wages growth is forecast to gather steam in the next 12 months. Meanwhile, international migration is on the rise.

A property market with fewer listings is a positive environment for vendors. Sellers who put their property on the market in a time of lower listings face less competition for a buyer. And, in keeping with the laws of supply and demand, a lower number of homes listed for sale helps to keep prices steady.

Are you considering selling, buying or investing in Sydney’s eastern suburbs? Get in touch with my team today.